Southampton v Arsenal

For f---s sake why wont someone shoot,this tippy tappy walk the ball into the net is getting us nowhere,their keeper has had little or nothing to do for all our possession.We need a different approach.

 

Quelle surprise. We put a cross in for a player who is actually good in the air and we score.

 

And then don't bother to try the same again.

 

Absolute rubbish,team looking like the manager now stale and out of ideas.Everything is so slow and laboured looking no zip in our play any more.

 

1-1 is a crap result for us really with the Spuds winning and is not being able to capitalise on Chelsea losing.

And we were fortunate to salvage that point too.

 

Good result considering how the game went; but don't let that distract you from the fact this was a poor result overall. we played poor - again. Looks like Ramsey got injured toward the end, maybe we will see wilshere start next game as result?

Sanchez was, again, very very poor for me. Apart from the cross to giroud, he didn't really do anything; looks like his time as an arsenal player is just flickering out.

We were so impotent today and that is a worry - almost as big a worry as our lapse in defensive concentration to start games. We really did get out of jail with girouds header.

Will say I thought ozil played well again.

 

FT. 1-1.

Not a good result in the slightest, but given how poorly we performed and where the game was heading, a point will do.

For most of the game, Southampton's tactics were working, so they deserve tremendous credit. They executed their game plan almost to perfection. I still don't understand why it takes Wenger up until the final 20 minutes to make the right subs.

It was clear for all to see that Lacazette was isolated, Ozil was marked out of the game & Sanchez too was well-marshalled. Yet we were still trying to cross the ball to a 5'8 man up against two gigantic center-halves.

We needed to switch up the way we were playing and we tried to do it, but we had the wrong striker on for that style of play.

Welbeck didn't add much to the game, but Wilshere and Giroud should have come on earlier.

Unfortunately, we were let down by Kolasinac and Bellerin today. Both were meant to provide width and support in attack, whilst also being sturdy in defence. They provided neither. Bellerin in particular was very bad. In the few occasions that he did break forward, he kept making the wrong decision and wanted too much time on the ball.

Also, based on today's performance, Romeu and Hojberg would both walk into our midfield. They were exceptional.

 

'Now'???

 

Your away form has been piss poor all season!

A point a game is gonna put massive pressure on your home form and leave you needing to win virtually all your remaining home games to have any chance of top 4.

Come February, Wenger might have to make a tough choice about going full bore for Europa and binning top4 like Jose and Klopp did the last 2 seasons.

 

Sorry,forgot.

 

This team wont make top four,no chance,our defence is poor and our midfield is crap.

 

It might. Chelsea Lost, Liverpool drew.....but thats all we can hope for. Top 4.

 

They still have a very good chance. Liverpool somehow drew a game they dominated and Chelsea are looking inconsistent. Looks like Klopp is suffering from idiotic syndrome like Wenger, with poor team selections.

 

I don't think Wengers teams selections have been particulalrly bad.

I think the main issue is he just does the same things over and over again expecting different results.

There's total disregard for tactical flexibility, he never changes the shape of the side to address an onfield problem and his only tactical substitutions tend to be more attackers or more defenders. There's never a opponent specific game-plan.

 

And Utd lost. It's frustrating as **** that we didn't take advantage of that this weekend. But at least we gained a point on Utd and Chelsea and kept pace with Liverpool.

 

Always enjoyed reading your posts mate and this seems an interesting summary as I didn't watch the game.

On your last sentence the thing is Lemina who didn't start today is better than both of them!!

 

Called it

 

Cheers for the kind words, much appreciated .

Not sure if you've had a chance to see the highlights, but you should be incredibly proud of your team and performance today. Statistically, we enjoyed more of the possession and had more shots, but we didn't do much with that possession and a lot of those shots were from range simply because we couldn't break through your defence/midfield. For all of our huffing & puffing, Forster had very little to do.

Some of your fans were getting frustrated with Redmond and Bertrand, but although they may not be the best decision makers in the final third, they are both important players to carry the ball forward, counter-attack and cause panic against opposition defences. Both of them had very busy games, giving us problems.

I've not always been a huge fan of Tadic's end product, but he provided a lovely reverse ball for Austin's opener and was winning fouls in dangerous areas due to his skill, control and balance.

You've got some very good players in your side and although I will admit I don't watch Southampton regularly, I can't see why you guys aren't higher up the table. You've got better players than Burnley for instance, I see no reason why you can't be challenging them for a place in the top 7.

All the best for the rest of the season.

 

Thought Wilshere looked really good when he came on. He also changed the game for us as he was more inventive and tried to make things happen. Has to start ahead of Xhaka for me now.

 

The simple answer to your final question is we don't score enough goals

For long periods we didn't really seem to be creating much at all but we seem to have turned that corner now and Austin is hitting a bit of form just at the right time, fingers crossed he stays fit. Our defence and midfield (not gk) is probably the best outside the top 6 and we're only a couple of really good signings in attacking areas away from being a really good side imo.

Must admit I and a few others were starting to doubt the manager too but he seems to have turned a corner recently too, so hope it continues.

I just watched the highlights (motd) and we should have been out of sight really so disappointing in that respect but still happy with the point... it was indeed a lovely reverse ball from Tadic and he had a couple of other moments of class too. The thing with Tadic is when he's on it, he's really on it but when he's not he offers absolutely nothing. Probably why we'll never lose him tbh as he's not consistent enough for a better team.

All the best to you lot for the season too. Can't see your neighbours getting top 4 so expect it will be straight fight between you and Liverpool for fourth spot.