Kevin Whitcher
On the balance of play and chances created, Arsenal were fortunate to get a point against Southampton. By the end of the evening, it felt more like a point gained than two lost. However, before kick off, this was viewed as a game the Gunners had to win if their title credentials were serious.
In fairness, Manchester City only took a point here, although both Chelsea and Spurs managed to win. Perhaps the fact that Southampton have only won two of their last eleven league games was the one that created pre-match belief that Arsenal should win here.
In the first half, they might as well have stayed in the dressing room. Towards the end of the 45 minutes, a chance was cleared off the line, but before that, the home team could have wrapped the game up, so many good chances did they carve out. Arsenal’s full backs were having a nightmare and at times, Mario Pochettino’s were cutting their opponents apart with ease. There seemed a real lack of quality in the passing play of Wenger’s team. Additionally, the midfield axis of Flamini and Arteta neither seemed to help much defensively nor offer any support to the attack.
Still, at least they bucked their ideas up in the second half, with two quick goals, courtesy of Giroud and Cazorla, before committing the cardinal sin of switching off and allowing Southampton an equalizer almost immediately after going 2-1 up. Where did the organized, thou shalt not pass defensive discipline go? Szczesny made a series of excellent saves and was probably Arsenal’s best player.
In some senses, it reminded one of the Everton game in London. A team faced Arsenal and played them at their own game, and looked better at it. At St Mary’s the weather was foul and the pitch slippy, but it did not stop the home team playing some pretty decent football.
There were some Arsenal fans in one of the corporate boxes directly above the home support on one side. There were plenty of exchanges between them and the supporters in the ordinary seats below as the Arsenal goals went in, swiftly followed by the equalizer. At that point, it was literally a case of get back in your box as the police ordered them inside. I am guessing they were moved elsewhere as they did not re-appear by the window to watch the game and the light in the box was turned out.
When Mathieu Flamini committed a two-footed tackle and was red carded (no questioning his commitment, although questions could be asked about his judgment), with ten minutes left, Arsene Wenger went for the draw by swapping Cazorla for Kieran Gibbs. Up until that point, the second half had been fairly equal. Arsenal had looked set to dominate at the point they went ahead, but failed to consolidate.
The team have had blips before and recovered – Villa at home, Manchester United away, Man City away. Was this just another bad day at the office? Can they go on another winning run? What can explain the poverty of performance in the opening 45 minutes?
Questions, questions. But for now, the most pertinent one is whether or not the club are going to invest in any new arrivals to strengthen the squad by the end of the week…
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