Match Day Thread Southampton v Arsenal Saturday 26 December ko 7:45 pm

Right, time for me to have a go at stopping the rot.

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Referee: Jon Moss
Assistants: M Mullarkey S Child
4th official: Keith Stroud

Team News:

Southampton remain without Fraser Forster, Jay Rodriguez and Florin Gardos but keeper Marten Stekelenburg has recovered from an ankle injury.

Arsenal are missing several key players. Alexis Sanchez is out for a further 3 weeks and Francis Coquelin, Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck and Tomas Rosicky are all long term absentees. Mikel Arteta has recovered from a calf strain.


Key Players:

Southampton:

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Big game for big Vic this. He's got a big job on his hands to keep Mesut Ozil quiet.


Arsenal:

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Ozil is having a superb season and, with 15 assists already to his name, is set to smash the PL record of 20 in a season, set by former Gunner Thierry Henry.


The good news for Saints is that Arsenal are yet to win at St Mary's since Saints returned to the PL. Arsenal's first visit resulted in a 1-1 draw, with Ramirez scoring but an own goal by former fan favourite Guly gave Arsenal a point. The following season the two teams played out an entertaining 2-2 draw (Fonte, Lallana, Giroud and Cazorla with the goals). Last season, Saints came out 2-0 winners with Mane and Tadic profiting from defensive errors.

 

Don't bother putting the oppositions name. Saints v The Winners could be used generically for home matches, with The Winners v Saints for the reverse fixture.

 

Bah Humbug!!

 

I have a feeling that Vic is going to be dropped.....

 

Not on someone's foot I hope....they might never walk again. If you are trying to suggest that he is leaving in January, never going to happen.

 

Time for us to bounce back. Lets make Wenger whinge!

 

Mesut Ozil looks like a fish

 

His demeanour seems very melancholy to me. Understandable given recent form, but still - we need fighting spirit to have a chance against Arsenal.

 

I don't think he will be leaving in January either. I just think it's got to the point for Koeman that he needs to change it up a bit and the two most likely areas to do that are the midfield pairing and up front. With that in mind I think Vic's place in the team is at risk this weekend as he's been the only constant and I also think he might drop Pelle and go with Mane and Long up top.

 

It must be frustrating for managers when they do their best and then watch a team lose because of silly mistakes. When we were free scoring it didn't matter...I can remember when going a goal down wouldn't depress the team at all, but it can knock the guts out of a team low in confidence. It can be hard to turn things round, but a win can having an amazing effect. How different we would feel if we were still on 21 points, but the results were shuffled. Easier to tolerate a mixture of results...but at the moment, the team can have no idea where the next win (or even draw) is coming from.

 

Gaston to start I would have thought, it would be nice to see Seager on the bench.

 

Arsenal looked seriously impressive against city, that was a Wenger teamat Iit's fluid, creative best. Possibly still a bit fragile though, and in need of someone to sit in front of the back four.

We really do need to score first to have a chance of getting anything out of this game. No reason why we shouldn't do that, I'm not too concerned about our scoring ability as we have been creating chances; well, half chances anyway, and Arsenal don't have Alderwanker to snuff us out. But we really have to cut out the catastrophic defensive errors.

 

Whilst I expect us to lose, I'm giving us a better chance in this one than against Spurs. For us to play well, it generally relies on us winning the battle in the middle of the park (something which is a whole lot harder to do this season without Morgan) - particularly against the big boys. Closing the opposition down, getting in their faces, winning the second balls, passing it nicely and calmly etc. And with Arsenal's injury problems in that area at the moment (I wouldn't even have Flamini in our team), I think Spurs' central midfield beats theirs hands down right now (especially with Poch in charge of that central midfield). They put a brick wall up against us in there.

Yes we still need Arsenal's forwards to have a bit of an off day, but at least we have a chance of dominating the middle of the park, which as I say is so important for us in my view - and is something which I simply never gave us a chance of doing against Spurs.

 

It's not just conceding the first goal, that causes us problems, now. There is the added factor of losing our composure and conceding a quick second goal.
City and Spurs, in the League, and Liverpool in the cup for example, in recent games.
If we do concede the first, we need to be thinking "safety first", ride out any storm that follows, ensure there is no second goal, then revert to Plan A.
At the moment conceding the first goal almost instantly leads to a second, and then we get too gung-ho and leave even more gaps at the back, to be exploited, with the exception of Villa of course.
Even Stoke should have scored more than once.

 

Not sure whether to be happy Tadic scored or worried that he scored round Victor

 

I don't want a lot for Christmas
There is just one thing I need
I don't care about the presents
Underneath the Christmas tree

I just want a Saints win
More than any other thing
Make my wish come true
All I want for Christmas is no boos.

(note the spelling boos not booze which is always welcome )

 

Funny I thought the same thing!