Match reaction: Arsenal 2-1 Southampton

[Özim]

Shocking penalty decision got us out of jail, dreadful start to the season from us.

[Letters]

I don't understand the furore over the penalty.

It was obviously a penalty
Surprised it was given though, those ones rarely are but he's clearly got hold of his shirt and then trips him when he's on the ground.

[Letters]

Seen the highlights now which didn't really give much of an idea of how we played. Heard we were awful though. I guess winning a game we didn't play well in is a good thing but worrying that we're not looking good, the other big guns aren't messing around but we've not slipped too far back. Yet.

What a goal by Kos. Where did that come from?!

[Power n Glory]

I really couldn’t see if it was a penalty from where I was sitting at the time. I thought the ref was going to blow for Kos being layed out on the floor in front of their goal.

The highlights didn’t show much. I’m sure we had a few more shots that went wide but it was few and far between.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

meh usually it's the kind of decision that goes against us

the way i look at it is, if we can't play well....at least win and we did that.

[GP]

It was definitely a penalty.

Of course Shane Long crying about it for 17 years makes it quite funny.

[Niall_Quinn]

It was a penalty, for shirt pulling. The only controversy here is that so few penalties are awarded for something that goes on all the time. But that doesn't make it a non-penalty, it just means refs are usually shite for not applying the rules, but in this case the ref did his job properly. After that it was a silly dive by Bif.

We were very lucky the ref didn't stop the game for a head injury though. And we were even luckier that Long is so shit.

3 points on the back of another embarrassingly poor performance, but that's pretty typical now. Ozil's performance was the most worrying aspect. He couldn't be arsed until Alexis came on. We haven't done nearly enough in the transfer window to keep these two, despite spending 90 mill, and the godawful tactics we use will further encourage them to look for the exit after we blow another title challenge this season, which is guaranteed to happen given the way we are playing and Wenger's inability to do anything about it.

LDG got it right, it's about a year since we looked like a team that has any clue what it's doing - October 2015 vs Utd. That game showed that with a bit of ambition and a willingness to get the ball forward quickly we can play effective and entertaining football. Even then, we shut that game down in the second half further underlining the fact that Wenger doesn't grasp the importance of momentum. He's the handbrake he goes on about so much, and as in the Soton game he's shown again that he's willing to pull that handbrake with increasing frequency. It would be nice to think we'll go and give PSG a proper game this week. However, it's very unlikely. More of Wenger's conservatism and negativity is on the cards I suppose.

[selassie]

It was a penalty, for shirt pulling. The only controversy here is that so few penalties are awarded for something that goes on all the time. But that doesn't make it a non-penalty, it just means refs are usually shite for not applying the rules, but in this case the ref did his job properly. After that it was a silly dive by Bif.

We were very lucky the ref didn't stop the game for a head injury though. And we were even luckier that Long is so shit.

3 points on the back of another embarrassingly poor performance, but that's pretty typical now. Ozil's performance was the most worrying aspect. He couldn't be arsed until Alexis came on. We haven't done nearly enough in the transfer window to keep these two, despite spending 90 mill, and the godawful tactics we use will further encourage them to look for the exit after we blow another title challenge this season, which is guaranteed to happen given the way we are playing and Wenger's inability to do anything about it.

LDG got it right, it's about a year since we looked like a team that has any clue what it's doing - October 2015 vs Utd. That game showed that with a bit of ambition and a willingness to get the ball forward quickly we can play effective and entertaining football. Even then, we shut that game down in the second half further underlining the fact that Wenger doesn't grasp the importance of momentum. He's the handbrake he goes on about so much, and as in the Soton game he's shown again that he's willing to pull that handbrake with increasing frequency. It would be nice to think we'll go and give PSG a proper game this week. However, it's very unlikely. More of Wenger's conservatism and negativity is on the cards I suppose.

Yeah it's a major worry, we really haven't played at a high level for ages now, I don't think it helps that Wenger doesn't appear to know his best/strongest starting line-up.

He's been screwing around with the starting line-up this season as per norm, he always does this at the start of the season. I thought pre-season was the time when you experiment with starting line-ups and playing players out of position and what not.

This season feels like the same as always, the only difference being is we're going to be in a real battle for a top 4 place with the Chavs, Spuds & Loserpool.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

It was definitely a penalty, especially considering the new directive from refs this season to punish shirt pulling in the box. Fonte clearly pulled Giroud's shirt and impeded him unfairly from trapping the ball.

However it was also definitely a foul on Shane Long in the build up to that and Monreal just ever so slightly clipped him. Mind you, Long is a detestable cheating cunt who was responsible for decking Koscienly off the ball last year in the 4 - 0 loss to them (for their second goal) so he deserves all the shit he gets. Can't believe there are any gooners who actually feel sorry for him or Southampton.

[Power n Glory]

It was a penalty, for shirt pulling. The only controversy here is that so few penalties are awarded for something that goes on all the time. But that doesn't make it a non-penalty, it just means refs are usually shite for not applying the rules, but in this case the ref did his job properly. After that it was a silly dive by Bif.

We were very lucky the ref didn't stop the game for a head injury though. And we were even luckier that Long is so shit.

3 points on the back of another embarrassingly poor performance, but that's pretty typical now. Ozil's performance was the most worrying aspect. He couldn't be arsed until Alexis came on. We haven't done nearly enough in the transfer window to keep these two, despite spending 90 mill, and the godawful tactics we use will further encourage them to look for the exit after we blow another title challenge this season, which is guaranteed to happen given the way we are playing and Wenger's inability to do anything about it.

LDG got it right, it's about a year since we looked like a team that has any clue what it's doing - October 2015 vs Utd. That game showed that with a bit of ambition and a willingness to get the ball forward quickly we can play effective and entertaining football. Even then, we shut that game down in the second half further underlining the fact that Wenger doesn't grasp the importance of momentum. He's the handbrake he goes on about so much, and as in the Soton game he's shown again that he's willing to pull that handbrake with increasing frequency. It would be nice to think we'll go and give PSG a proper game this week. However, it's very unlikely. More of Wenger's conservatism and negativity is on the cards I suppose.

Hence why I thought Theo should be starting up front. But we’ve played Sanchez and now have Perez up front and we still looked toothless. The pace is there. I can’t understand it. Ozil had an awful performance but he was playing with Coquelin and Cazorla behind him so it’s not as if it’s the wrong combo there. Plenty of pace up front as well so not sure why he wasn’t looking to dictate things a bit more. His touch was off, his passing was off…not sure what was wrong with him.