Southampton v Arsenal. 23/10/22. 14:00

[Marc Overmars]

Annoying fixture that we’ve inexplicably struggled to win at times in the past.

You’d think we should too have much for them today but stranger things have happened.

0-2.

[mandela8]

Huge game anaw.

There's not many weeks you know you can extend your lead over, at least, 3 of your top 4 rivals.

[Marc Overmars]

Yep, chance to go 10 points clear of 5th. Well on course for the top 4.

A balls up is coming though I feel.

[HCZ_Reborn]

The balls up has already started, keeps fucking playing Tomiyasu at left back.

It’s harming our attacking play, stupid Cunt

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Southampton: Bazunu, Lyanco, Caleta-Car, Salisu, Perraud, Elyounoussi, Diallo, Ward-Prowse, Aribo, S Armstrong, A Armstrong.
Subs: McCarthy, Adams, Mara, Djenepo, Edozie, Larios, Walcott, Finnigan, Payne.

Arsenal: Ramsdale, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Tomiyasu, Xhaka, Partey, Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Jesus.
Subs: Turner, Cedric, Holding, Tierney, Lokonga, Vieira, Nelson, Marquinhos, Nketiah.

[Marc Overmars]

So Tomi is pretty much the preferred left back now.

Weird.

[Mac76]

Ffs tomi at left back and Saka starting AGAIN

Arteta just won't learn

[dostoy]

Arsenal: Ramsdale, White, Saliba, Tomiyasu, Xhaka, Partey, Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Jesus.
Subs: Turner, Cedric, Holding, Tierney, Lokonga, Vieira, Nelson, Marquinhos, Nketiah.

Are we starting with 10 men ?

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Haha fair point.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

It appears I dropped Gabriel.

[Mac76]

It appears I dropped Gabriel.

Bit harsh surely? :)

[Mac76]

3-0 Ward-Prowse hatter btw

[GP]

Ffs tomi at left back and Saka starting AGAIN

Arteta just won't learn

Learn from what?

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Bit harsh surely? :)

Too many mistakes lately!

[Mac76]

Learn from what?

playing he wrong guy at LB and running Saka into the ground

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Come on Arsenal. :bow:

Jesus shot saved, given offside though.

[Mac76]

Come on Arsenal. :bow:

Jesus shot saved, given offside though.

he should have cut back to Xhaka then tho i get it was offside

[Marc Overmars]

Confident start

[GP]

playing he wrong guy at LB and running Saka into the ground

He thinks you're wrong. Most do.

Results speak for themselves.

[Mac76]

He thinks you're wrong. Most do.

Results speak for themselves.

there's other people herre who agree with me on one or both of those counts

as for results, we were lucky against Leeds, I'd argue partly because Tomi was LB not Tierney, a lot of people have said the same

[Marc Overmars]

Odgegaard drags it wide. Bit weak.

[Marc Overmars]

We’re all over them.

Need to score.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Odegaard drags it wide.

[Marc Overmars]

XHAKA!!!

What a finish

[Mac76]

really poor support for Southampton, stadium nowhere near full, and the only fans you can hear are ours

[Ed] - and that was before the goal :lol:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

XHAKA!!!

[GP]

Xhaka! What a player! :bow:

[Mac76]

pelanty ffs!

[Marc Overmars]

Jesus was waiting for a penalty there. Should have focused on actually getting to the ball.

[Globalgunner]

Xhaka. With his right foot no less. World has gone mad

[Mac76]

that was a total pel for me

[Marc Overmars]

St Mary’s offering up the worst home support I’ve ever heard.

[Marc Overmars]

Jesus shoots into the side netting. Good work from Partey and Odegaard there

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Think Jesus should've struck with his right.

[Marc Overmars]

Saka booked for diving. Harsh, looks like he just got crowded out.

[GP]

That's a clear foul! Is this ref on crack?

[McNamara That Ghost...]

How was that a dive?

[mandela8]

Saka booked for diving. Harsh, looks like he just got crowded out.

:haha:

Naw it fuckin didny

[mandela8]

How was that a dive?

Oh shut the fuck up

[GP]

:haha:

Naw it fuckin didny

Diddly doodly daddly wanker

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Oh shut the fuck up

No.

[Mac76]

good defending by the ref there

[Marc Overmars]

Corner after corner

[LDG]

Ref so fuckkng biased

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Martinelli. :bow:

[Mac76]

short corner routine fails as usual

[Marc Overmars]

Jesus shot saved

[Mac76]

Odegaard's having a very good game

[mandela8]

Jesus is such a good player but he really does lack the ruthlessness of a top striker.

[Marc Overmars]

HT 0-1

Very comfortable. Need to put this to bed early in the second half.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

0-1 HT.

[Mac76]

good first hslf, an early goal in the second and it's all over

[mandela8]

HT 0-1

Very comfortable. Need to put this to bed early in the second half.

Got that feeling "we might regret this" about it though, man.

Decent performance though, apart from the finishing. Xhaka's wonderful strike aside.

Tommy offering nothing out left. If only we'd had evidence of this not working before <strokes chin>

[Marc Overmars]

Jesus is such a good player but he really does lack the ruthlessness of a top striker.

Quite frustrating tbh.

City would be 3 up by now in a game like this where the opposition are just waiting to be put out of their misery.

Just takes one fluke or a moment of madness and it’s game on.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

Needlessly frustrating too watch.

Other top teams would have been 3 up in the first 30 mins.

We keep doing this, whenever we go into the lead early we just sit back waiting for the other team to make mistakes and inviting needless pressure. Clearly this team believes they can defend anything. Quite a stupid belief if you ask me

Again, Tomi struggling and clearly no need for him to start ahead of Tierney. Honestly I am getting sick of how predictable Arteta is.

[selassie]

good first hslf, an early goal in the second and it's all over

Yep. We need that second goal though or at least not to concede many set pieces, they look dangerous from set pieces. We have played well though, decent half.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Come on Arsenal. :bow:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Saliba with a Mustafi tribute act there.

[Marc Overmars]

All Southampton have is long balls and throws into the box.

[LDG]

How can that not be a foul!!!

[McNamara That Ghost...]

What? :lol:

[mandela8]

Gabriel's hair transplant looking fire

Holding must've helped a brother oot.

[Marc Overmars]

Jesus through on goal but can’t get a shot away. :rolleyes:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Come on Jesus.

[mandela8]

Causing our own problems here. Lack of outlets and dithering...




Ffs jesus

[Mac76]

how many times is Jesus going to get fouled with no FK given ffs?

[Marc Overmars]

1-1

Pathetic lack of ruthlessness and here we are.

[LDG]

That was awful.

Get Tomyasu off. He’s been shit

[McNamara That Ghost...]

1-1. Fuck.

[Mac76]

f**k

poor defending

[Marc Overmars]

Can’t string a pass together now.

[mandela8]

Tragic stuff.

The fuck is White doing 5 yards behind the line there?

[Mac76]

we got so complacent there, plus Tomi showed why he shouldn't be at LB every game

Jesus really ineffective in front of goal

we need Tierney and Eddie on

[mandela8]

Classic Xhaka right there.

Just too slow on the ball.

[Marc Overmars]

Eddie and Tierney on

Martinelli and White off

[Mac76]

Martinelli off - wtf?

[Marc Overmars]

The crowd are still shit. Don’t know how we’ve let them back into this.

[Mac76]

Walcott comes on to get the winner

[Marc Overmars]

Odegaard smashes it in but the ball went out of play prior.

[Marc Overmars]

Looking a bit leggy now.

[Marc Overmars]

We look dreadful.

[LDG]

We have been so poor for most of this

[Marc Overmars]

Careless 2 points dropped and an alarming drop off in the second half.

[Xhaka Can’t]

Meh. Overall this season, they’ve produced the goods.

For some reason, we have problems whenever we face Southampton.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

1-1 FT. Bullshit.

[mandela8]

Reverting to type.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Looked leggy and tired, the performance is understandable given the amount of games we’ve played but the big issue is not scoring more. Jesus has been very wasteful. Not heartbroken as thought we’d drop points against Leeds or Southampton but a lot of players first touches taking them into trouble, Partey looked off the pace.

Away at Southampton never been one of our favourite fixtures so not the end of the world

[Letters]

Arteta OUT! :fury:

[Marc Overmars]

Very disappointing tbh. Under hardly any pressure but when you don’t score enough goals this is what can happen.

We looked fucked after it went to 1-1 and couldn’t muster up anything. I’d be a little more forgiving if we were getting battered but I don’t think Southampton could even believe they were level, they had no belief they could go on and win it, thankfully for us.

Need to put in a slick performance against Forest next week and forget this. This was frustrating but we’re not going to win every game and we’ve earned ourselves enough credit so far this season. On we go.

[selassie]

That is two weeks on the trot now where we have pretty much fallen apart second half and offered little to nothing going forward. If we having any ambitions of challenging for the title then we need to cut this out and find a solution.

I thought we looked good first half, but came out second half and looked a totally different team, it is points dropped but we are still top so we can't complain yet. We need to improve though because we have definitely dropped a level the past few weeks.

[Marc Overmars]

Hopefully the game at PSV is a full second string.

[Mac76]

All Arteta’s chickens coming home to roost today

We should have won this game but the balloon is now burst – teams will now really set about us with less fear than previously

Jesus clearly tired after too many pointless minutes played in EL games etc., similarly Saka

Tomi shows again he is not suited to LB (even Arteta had to concede that in the second half by swapping him over after he let Saints through for their goal)

Martinelli and Odegaard inexplicably taken off while Xhaka is left to amble slowly around the pitch for the rest of the game…

The Leeds game should have been a warning but Arteta just ignored the signs

[mandela8]

Any mention of tiredness is just excuse making and doesn't help anyone.

Playing Tomyasu at LB has fuck all to do with being tired.

Playing Ben White at RB has fuck all to do with being tired.

Xhaka taking 20 minutes to move a ball has fuck all to do with being tired.

Saka being an entitled wee shit who barely tries has nothing to do with being tired.

Jesus being fuckin shite in front of goal has nothing to do with being tired.

Arteta doing fuck all about any of the above has fuck all to do with being tired.

He seen last week that the set up simply doesn't work and what does he do? Goes with the same again.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Look at me I’m Scottish mode is switched on

I’m not going to pretend that the full back situation makes sense to me. It doesn’t


But abundantly clear the main issue was the second half and that players did look leggy. A lot of misplaced passes and poor first touches allowed them to regain possession. Had we put the game to bed in the first half like we should have done it wouldn’t have mattered so much, but with a small squad it’s ridiculous to argue that fatigue is not an issue. Partey was really poor second half.
The substitutions didn’t make sense either, Tierney fine but why take Martinelli and Odegaard off. Vieira was poor when he came on, as was Tierney and Nketiah. Really do need more depth to the squad…we don’t have that many injuries.

But poor day at the office, I do wish Arteta wouldn’t wait until we drop points before he acts….but frankly I can live with dropping points here given Chelsea, Man United and Spurs also dropped points.

Jesus needs to be more clinical too