please log in to view this image Venue: St. Mary's Stadium Date: Sunday 23rd October 2022 KO time: 14:00 BST Overall Record Wins: 53 Losses: 23 Draws: 28 Last six meetings Southampton 1-0 Arsenal Arsenal 3-0 Southampton Southampton 1-3 Arsenal Southampton 1-0 Arsenal (FA Cup) Arsenal 1-1 Southampton Southampton 0-2 Arsenal please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
Evening, Saints fan here. We've got some really important players out injured: KWP, Lavia, Bella-Kotchap, AMN is ineligible so you should walk this TBH.
The thing is, your team can be quite strange. You’ve had some surprising results under Hassenhuttl - good and bad. You’re capable of some huge scalps and also capable of disasterclasses. In theory, this is a game I expect us to win relatively comfortably but our last 3 performances haven’t been 100% convincing. Our record at your ground is also very hit and miss. Most logical factors would say this is a game Arsenal get the 3 points. But as we all know, football doesn’t work that way.
HT. 0-1. started off really well, then the game was very cagey and intensity dropped off a bit. Really nice finish by Xhaka though, who scores with his right foot for the 2nd time this week. Jesus possibly should have extended our lead. This referee is absolutely terrible though, he clearly needs to be demoted because he’s out of his depth. No consistency in his decisions whatsoever.
Also special mention to Ben White, who has really excelled in this right back position. What a player he is turning out to be.
Really hate moaning about referees, but he is PATHETIC. Please never officiate another Arsenal game again.
Agree, Ref was a joke! Where did Saka simulate a foul which meant he had to tread carefully for more than half the game and then, what about all the double arm man handling of Jesus! Anyway, second half we were lacking any zest and looked lack lustre...a draw was fair based in 2nd half. But we had enough opportunities in the 1st half to put the game to bed and should have had at least 1 penalty. At least the magpies are 1-0 up over the scum spuds at the moment..
Was about to come and moan about the result and performance but Spurs result means we’ve gained an extra point ahead of them. Fair play to them though, no matter how much we embarrass ourselves, Spurs are always there to make us feel better
Just in case Arsenal fans missed 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."
There should be complaints tbh. The reffing was soo bad I can think of 6-7 incidents that should be reviewed
Just in case anyone has any doubt about how useless that referee was, you have Saints fans on Twitter joking about it too:
You deserved a point yesterday and we only have ourselves to blame for missing chances and not dominating an injury-hit Southampton side. I’m not taking that aspect of the game away from you. However, the referee was absolutely horrible and made a series of terrible decisions throughout the entire game. They’re not mutually exclusive. He was letting your players get away with a lot of fouls and niggles and pushes. How Lynaco wasn’t sent off is a mystery frankly. We had two decent penalty shouts not even bothered checking. And booking Saka for diving when he was off balance summed up his ineptitude. Look, I don’t really like whinging about referees, but he had a proper stinker yesterday. That doesn’t mean you didn’t deserve a point based on the performance, though.
I must admit to a sharp intake of breath or two during the game, no doubt other managers would have had a grumble. Lyanco is a nutter, but he's our nutter and we love him.
I'm not claiming the dropped points on the Ref btw. We still should have put the game to bed while we were on top. The big mistake was taking our foot off the gas once we went 1-0 (we then found it hard to come back once Southampton had some momentum). But just the sheer number of weird decisions should be questioned: Saka wrongly getting carded for simulation 2 clear goal kicks were awarded corners The head-butt attempt Multiple elbows and shirt grabs The throat grab Potential penalty on Gabriel Lyanco got away with like 15 foals! He has to be careful now as it seems it's all about reputation as to how well you get treated. If Xhaka had done any one of those things.. do you think he would still be on the pitch?