Southampton 2 - 2 Arsenal: Dropped points, should have been worse

I don't know if "below par" quite does justice for the turgid nature of Arsenal's performance, but that's probably the most succinct way of putting it without launching into a long line of expletives.

Simply put, Arsenal didn't turn up for the first half. Southampton had control of the ball right from the first second and we did nothing to change that fact, be it by simply sitting off and letting them stroke it about or by giving the ball straight back when we did get it. The Arsenal team looked very leggy, distinctly lacking in any sort of energy and looked barely capable of keeping up with Southampton, let alone asserting any sort of control.

The first goal conceded was poor from a defensive point of view. Shaw's ball into the box had quality, but Monreal at the back post had to do better, and quite what Szczesny was attempting to do with his save I don't know. For all of Southampton's good play, that goal was a product of poor Arsenal defending.

It could have and should have been a lot worse. Their young striker, Gallagher, missed two great chances, while Szczesny was called upon a couple of times. Arsenal had a chance to remarkably go in level at half time, but Boruc pulled out a good stop to deny Koscielny.

That first half was less of a case of poor team selection and tactics and more about the lethargy Arsenal displayed. Wenger certainly needed to have a word with them at half time and judging by the first five minutes of the second half, he did. Arsenal came out flying, got two quick goals through Giroud and Cazorla and had turned the game right on its head.

But, Arsenal lacked control, and weren't so threatening going forward that Southampton would be too scared to come out. They kept going and quickly equalised through Lallana, who's run wasn't tracked into the box.

The game became more stretched but it was Southampton who probably had the better of the chances. Monreal got in behind a couple of times but lacked the requited quality on both occasions, while Ozil just oozed class througout the whole seoncd half; just a shame none of his team mates seemed to be up for it. We had to rely on Szczesny, Koscielny and Mertesacker to ensure we didn't lose the game and any hope we had of snatching a winner was lost after Flamini's stupid two foot tackle; yes, he won the ball cleanly, but you can't tackle like that and expect to get away with it.

In the end, a point is probably as good as we could have hoped for, given the way we performed over the 90 minutes. Unfortunately, it's also two dropped points, and that means that wins for City and Chelsea will see them go above us in the table. Flamini now misses the next three games (Palace, Liverpool and United), while there's news floating about that Ramsey will be out for a further month or so with a tendon problem. Do we start to panic now?

Well, of course not. City and Chelsea play each other next Monday, meaning an Arsenal win over Palace on Sunday will put them back on top with a decent chance of staying there until the next game. Besides that, there's a long way to go in this season, and a draw away to a decent Southampton side isn't going to spell the end of our title challenge.

A bigger concern would be losing Ramsey for such a long amount of time, and in the immediate short-term, the suspension of Flamini leaves us with just Arteta and Wilshere as our natural central midfield choices, and who knows what state Wilshere is in at the moment. It means Chamberlain may see some action there, and could mean Rosicky has to wear a face mask.

It's a disappointing performance and result, but let's try not to be too down about things. Tomorrow we could be third, this time next week we could be top again. It shouldn't need to be said that things can change very quickly.

that arteta-flamini combo never works, i knew we were going to drop points after seeing the team. but we had no choice, ramsey-wilshere-rosicky injured, ox just back from injury. we were forced to play them imo, so no fault on wenger.

Starting to think Wenger flat out hates Podolski now

Lex wrote:Starting to think Wenger flat out hates Podolski now

i REALLY think he might he going, maybe a draxler swap

The way we started the game reminds me of the Fulham game last week. We were slack, sloppy, no urgency on and off the ball. You can get way with starting half a sleep against pub teams like Fulham but against teams like Southampton you are just asking for trouble.

I hope Ramsey's injury isn't too serious because I can't see Jack playing every game until the end of the season. We can't keep playing Flamini and Arteta in midfield together, its no coincidence that our worse performances have been when they both have started. They remind me of when we had Denilson and Eboue starting for us in midfield ffs.

Ramsey is out for 4-6 weeks. Forget about him for a while

Lex wrote:Ramsey is out for 4-6 weeks. Forget about him for a while

     

Starting Gnarby over podolski

Ramsey out for another month?
Is it the same injury because of a early comeback?

If it then wow, its the medical staff's fault obviously.

Lex wrote:Ramsey is out for 4-6 weeks. Forget about him for a while

     

Lex wrote:Ramsey is out for 4-6 weeks. Forget about him for a while

lex where did u get this from?

Nishank wrote:Ramsey out for another month?
Is it the same injury because of a early comeback?

If it then wow, its the medical staff's fault obviously.

same thigh injury

Flamini banned for four games due to already picking up a suspension earlier in the season.

Flamini is a idiot, wth is wrong with him?  
Flamini should not have been on the field for 80m in the first place, it was not working Wenger should have made a sub.
If I was Podolski I would ask for a trade, Wenger is really pushing it. Not sure why a donkey brain like Giroud plays every minute and Podoslki does not?

The thing is, Podolski doesn't take people on like Gnabry does. He's a better player and it really frustrates me not to see him starting games, but I think Arsene just wants someone who is a bit different from everyone else and tries to penetrate and cause problems like Theo or AOC (who isn't quite fit enough yet).

And Raptor, Giroud did score you know...

-not end of the world as of some over reaction on social media suggests

-but our record vs top7 is average(W2 D2 L2)
We could do the same in 2nd half of the season and be fine as our record vs rest of the league(bottom 13 if you call it lol is the best
so with these 2 pts dropped need to up our game
possibly need to beat both pool and united now which i cant quite see it

-just our luck with fitness that for such game we miss ramshere and not fully fit Arteta has to play such role moving higher to close down opp

-the battle of our right vs their left was intriguing
Sagna couldnt win as many aerials as usual to keep the ball high up which has been good route to use most times

-eventually all goals originated kinda from there
we were lucky they had to field an inexperienced CF could have been worse

-TBF where Shaw looked standout player ,but that could at the same time be same space that could have won us the game if we had the tools To Capitalize

-but Mesut was Terrific in 2nd half, jealous of ppl who could watch him closely there
he knew where to find the space but cant do it all on his own
he is missing some perfect partners to link up with him yet offer penetrative runs

--was just looking at his heat map around 55% of his touches in 2nd half before sent off came in that right sided channel behind Shaw

-again no luck that both Theo and Aaron should miss crucial stage of the season

-lets bounce back with a win vs palace

I'm more worried about Ramsey being injuried than this result. I was already dreading the usual injury crisis since the start of the season but losing walcott for the season and Ramsey for 4 to 6 weeks is a lhuge blow. I honestly can't see us win the title even if there still is a ray of hope and i'd like to be wrong. However i don't see our 13-15 main players being on form for the rest of the season without any rest. Giroud is going to burnt out, it's so obvious. someone like him has to be fresh in order to perform.

What does Podolski have to do to get a game around here...

Arteta was utter shit. Blame it on match fitness or whatever, but he provided nothing in attack or defense. He got bypassed so easily and didn't even try to sprint to support the attack. Even Denilson would have done more...

I don;t know why Wenger refuses to use subs. Our players were clearly "jaded" (or just decided to play like shit) in the first half. Chamberlain and especially Podolski should have come on much earlier.

I just couldn't believe how easy it was for Southampton to pass the ball around. Giroud and Ozil would half-heartly press. Once Southampton passed that, there was no one in front of them. Whereas as soon as we won the ball, there were no passing options. No one was getting open and opening the passing lanes. Defenders had to hoof most of the time. Arteta and Flamini should have gotten into better positions to receive the pass.

Overall, just such a disappointment. Worst performance of the season.

urbaNRoots wrote:Interesting that our worst performance of the season (without a doubt) is still only a draw.

Very disappointing performance overall, it just looked like one of those games pre-2013 when we couldn't defend, atleast back then we kept possession and created something, nope that didn't happen either last night. We should make things right by beating some of the big teams if we drop points against the other teams.

If Ramsey is indeed out for more than a month then Wilshere, Rosicky and Chambo replace him but that'll leave us short in the right wing, we probably need a right winger now.

Now let's hope Spurs get something from City (brb washing my mouth).

Tbf, its giving too much credit to say that our worst performance is still a draw. I would rather win ugly than drop points in the league this year.

When I mentioned this as the Arsenal of old, some body said the team showed resilience to hold on to a point. What I saw was similar to the team performance which resulted in a 4-0 lead at HT ending a 4-4 draw. Glad I'm not the only one who saw this.

We won't have a RW problem if Cazorla played there and Podolski started. Then we still have Rosicky/Ox/Jack/Gnabry/Podolski/Santi for 2 wings. (Flamini can play CL, he's only suspended for 4 domestic fixtures, by when Ramsey would probably be 2-3 weeks away). So our 'crisis' is only short term.

Unsurprisingly, this short term coincides nicely with our toughest couple of months in the season. Arguably, the toughest run we've faced in years.

Will we actually reinforce the squad? I don't know. I hope AW wasn't trolling when he said I hope I have something to tell you. Last time he said he hoped to have something to tell us, we signed Mesut Özil.

I havent read any of your posts (sorry little time available).

I just feel that Flop of the match was Wenger.

First tactics were terrible to start with. Our players didnt defend nor attack. They didnt have right instructions .

We started well the 2nd half and I understand we were short on the bench but when u r about to lose crucial points, i would take some risks at least.

I would bring OX for Arteta and Podolski for Gnabry, move Santi or Ozil right and Ox in midfield slightly advanced than Arteta.

I think our biggest issue was midfield and Wenger failed to do something about it.

+1 HB. That's exactly what I have been harping on.

I started suffering from a migraine b4 the game kicked off. Needless to say, my headache got much worse while trying to comprehend what I was watching. Couldn't finish the game

luck pls come back on our side fgs

Great work Jay!

Lex wrote:Ramsey is out for 4-6 weeks. Forget about him for a while