Southampton vs Arsenal PL 15/16

Title isnt won or lost by this game anyway
grind out results in next 2 games and restore the confidence
shit happens

All I can say is lol, tittle my butt. Was right to be skeptical once again.

As long as Kompany is out and Mourinho doesn't become Man U's coach, Arsenal are still favorites imo...

Yeah what can I say, this game pretty much had that feeling that we were going to be ass just like we were last season in the new year's day fixture, and the second half of this same fixture also around this time of the year two seasons ago.

There's just something about this fixture at this time of the season.

I'm not giving up on anything yet lol. This season is too weird enough to do that. We just have to dust ourselves off, forget about this and move on, and of course respond as soon as possible.

Having said that, it's true it's the same old things again. No bite when it is called upon. But again the season is too weird and teams are consistenly average too just give up now, we might as well just end up winning the title while having no bite and mental strength at all.

Soton weren't great, but they had a plan and we couldn't deal with their simple pressing. We're just poor at that when we're not up to rising our level in the game. We come into the game expecting the opposition will respect us and give us most of the possession with not much high pressing. And it's that combination of arrogance and lack of mental fortitude and preparation to rise to the occasion when the situation of the game is placed against us. Refereeing was poor as well which didn't help at all, so that's why I think we will be best of just forgetting about this as soon as possible and up our level of play as soon as possible, don't care how much fatigued you are Dortmund and Atletico have proved before that they can run and work tremendously hard for 95% of the season, and we just have to get close to that, no complaints, put the *bleep* hard work in jesus.

It'll come to no one's surprise then that we've suffered in nearly every aspect since Coquelin's injury.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1862/premier-league/2015/12/27/18731512/the-shocking-stats-that-show-how-much-arsenal-really-miss?ICID=HP_HN_1

Really should not have gone into the season with Flamini and Arteta as cover. Should have signed Elnino and whoever the hell else we were looking at.

Champions or championship challengers are not outfought and outplayed by teams lacking in confidence and fighting relegation. This is very embarrassing and an eye opener, even if we were to go and win the title. I wouldn't like to do it by getting beaten 4-0 by the likes of Southampton. I am not sure the players or the manager would be happy with that.

I don't know about you guys but I can't help but think that the blue print provided by Southampton yesterday will be replicated by other teams in the league, this was the first time we played a capable side away from home without Cazorla and Coquelin and we struggled to play with our usual fluidity. Not sure if it's to do with Flamini not being a playmaker or Ramsey not taking enough responsibility in the build up or the heavy pressing employed by the Saints yesterday but it has to change because we will play teams who are more physical and who press better than Southampton. Arsene has to find a solution to this.

Horrible, awful match yesterday.

But to people saying that there's no just way we can win the title this season, you're overreacting. Everybody's been getting bad results this season. We're still in second place, above all the teams who are presumably so much better situated than we are. The Manchester clubs, Spurs, Liverpool - they'd all prefer to be where Arsenal are. Relax. It ain't over til the fat lady sings, as they say.

It's not the result on its own, but the mounting injury situation. The result and performance are indicative of a tiring and depleted squad and we have to travel to Liverpool and Stoke soon who will play the same way Southampton did - run a bit harder, press the player on the ball. The other clubs aren't going through this period with only 17 fit first team players.

This blueprint for beating us has been around for a couple of years now. When it comes to passing out the back under duress, we are very, very average. Koscielny gave the ball away in his own half so many times last night, and Mertesacker did his usual thing of standing on the ball too long. None of our midfielders come deep to collect the ball. They stand in the centre circle waiting to receive the ball from the defenders. Hence if you press our defenders, block off the passing channels into the mids and delay us playing out, the whole build-up breaks down.

As good a partnership Kos and Mert are, neither are ball-playing defenders. Koscielny can come out with the ball but his passing is poor. Mertesacker is uncomfortable on the ball. As much as Arsenal need a deep-lying CM who can build from deep, they need a CB who can pass too, if they want to continue playing this way. Otherwise whenever we come up against a high press, we may as well just go long to Giroud.

EL Patron wrote:Champions or championship challengers are not outfought and outplayed by teams lacking in confidence and fighting relegation. This is very embarrassing and an eye opener, even if we were to go and win the title. I wouldn't like to do it by getting beaten 4-0 by the likes of Southampton. I am not sure the players or the manager would be happy with that.

lel stop talking nonsense. You are just overreacting. If we go on our usual run from March to May and end up winning the league, nobody will remember this loss because it was all just a result part of a crazy season full of crazy results.