When I first watched it, that's what I thought, but on the replay it was quite theatrical and the Referee was quite correct and used it to make the point that he wasn't prepared to accept any simulation. Theo's dive was very similar and got the same treatment, once Arsenal, always Arsenal.
8pts claimed from losing positions this season, second only to Palace. What a weird side we are with our leading ability to drop points from winning positions.
I think Lyanco is my new favourite Saints player. He's no Guly, but I do love having a crazy Brazilian in the side. Good performance today although JWP could have stayed at home and I don't think we'd have missed him.
If the arsenal had won I'm sure I wouldn't have to wait until the last to watch the game on motd2. Do cockneys have jobs also??
Cracking game. What a different side in the second half. Lots of thoughts but mainly, a 1-1 draw against the Arsenal at the moment is a win. Edozie - cracking, Lyanco - crazy. Ralphs needs to sort out the midfield when defending because I don't know what they are supposed to be doing but standing in space and getting passed through shouldn't be it IMHO.
The arsenal fans online were so rattled by him. And their players. They hate being tackled (or seeing their players tackled). Some have started to snap and even suggest he should have been sent off in the first half for…reasons. Your guess is as good as mine - perhaps just that their players didn’t like playing against him?
I'm nipping over to the Arsenal thread and posting this. "It's painful because we wanted to win again," Arteta told BBC Match of the Day afterwards. "Credit to Southampton as well. There are no complaints."
Good article from The Athletic (not that they ever produce bad ones): ‘We had them on the ropes’: Hasenhuttl’s tactical tweak nearly topples Arsenal please log in to view this image By Jacob Tanswell It was fitting that there were large booms of thunder at the full-time whistle at St Mary’s. The crowd had just witnessed lightning in a bottle. When all feels lost and consumed by chaos, Ralph Hasenhuttl’s Southampton can find a way; when they trailed their own fans were singing “How **** must you be? It’s only 1-0”; by the end of the 1-1 draw, Hasenhuttl declared top-of-the-table Arsenal were “on the ropes”. A hamstring injury to Kyle Walker-Peters meant Hasenhuttl had only Saturday’s session to work out how best to compensate for the loss of a key figure. He preached the need for “flexibility” but insisted Southampton would not “defend deep” as they did in April’s 1-0 win, where they recorded just 24 per cent possession. With Walker-Peters one of the key ball carriers in the side, Stuart Armstrong was brought back in. Only 12 per cent of attacking midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues carry the ball more into the final third. In defence, the decision was to use Lyanco, Southampton’s fourth-choice centre-back, to replace Walker-Peters. It was his first league start this season. In front of him was Mohamed Elyounoussi in a 4-4-2 shape that was designed to stop overloads out wide. As is often the case, Southampton’s best intentions fell by the wayside quickly. Granit Xhaka, emboldened by Gabriel Martinelli staying wide and dragging Lyanco and Elyounoussi out of position, was the blindspot in the hosts’ shape. The midfielder struck past Gavin Bazunu in the 11th minute. please log in to view this image Hasenhuttl sought to remedy the tactical issue immediately, with assistant Ruben Selles relaying a message to Elyounoussi, who passed it on to Armstrong. Southampton changed to a back five, adding defensive cover. Afterwards, Hasenhuttl described it as a 3-3-4 system, with the two wing-backs stationed high and wide and providing width across the front four. How the game would then unfold was a microcosm of Southampton over the past four years. Clear intentions frequently get clouded by failure, leading to confusion and stasis. Over the next 54 minutes, Arsenal flatlined and Southampton did what they could. It led to an impasse no one, really, was happy with. The diet of long throws and corners came to be the host’s only method of attack and disrupted, as Mikel Arteta would later say, the match rhythm. The away end gradually quietened, bellowing out “Super Mikel Arteta” sporadically, while the home supporters to the right of Arsenal in the Northam Stand sang self-deprecating songs. But the tipping point came three minutes after the break. William Saliba’s sideways pass was intercepted by Adam Armstrong, but his heavy touch inadvertently gave the ball to Gabriel having been one-on-one against the defender. A gentleman behind the press box punched a wall, clearly frustrated. And while the missed opportunity provoked supporters to wistfully pine for “Southampton’s goal machine” Rickie Lambert, Hasenhuttl later identified that passage of play as the prelude for the upturn in bravery. Arsenal committing such a loose error gave encouragement for Southampton to press. Southampton are the most direct team in the league and probably one of the least equipped to pass out from the back. Hasenhuttl even said it himself just over a week ago: “As soon as we start building up play, the mistake growth rate goes up.” Yet for the equalising goal, Southampton put together their most sweeping attacking move since the 3-2 win away to Tottenham Hotspur in February. It encapsulated every dimension of Hasenhuttl’s put-together shape with both wing-backs involved. It was Mohammed Salisu’s pass forward out of defence that acted as the vertical accelerant, with Joe Aribo’s dummy leaving the ball for Romain Perraud. The Frenchman then switched the play out to Elyounoussi, who was the perpetual out-ball all afternoon. Elyounoussi cut inside, sliding a pass in for Stuart Armstrong, who, unshackled, had taken up an advanced role in a midfield three. He ran off the back of Arsenal’s midfield and scored a club goal for the first time since March. please log in to view this image Neither of those two players had scored or assisted before this match; in a matter of seconds, they each notched their first goal contribution of the season. The friendly jibes from the crowd turned to self-belief and that transmitted to the players. Midfielder Ibrahima Diallo screamed at Lyanco to go up for the next corner after the Brazilian appeared reserved about committing another player into the box. “We got the feeling that we had them on the ropes,” Hasenhuttl told The Athletic. “They had 24 hours less to recover than we did which maybe is the reason why we had more in the tank and could push a little bit harder.” Southampton did push. They did not defend deep. Lyanco, whose cult status is surely confirmed, celebrated winning a throw and roused the same cluster of supporters who contrived those earlier songs. As the rain began to fall and thunder bellowed, St Mary’s greeted the final whistle with a roar that felt like a win.
