Starting XI: Cech, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Flamini, Ramsey, Ozil, Campbell, Walcott, Giroud
Subs: Ospina, Gabriel, Chambers, Gibbs, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Iwobi, Jeff Reine-Adelaide
Arsenal squandered the chance to go top of the Premier League as Southampton secured an impressive 4-0 win at Saint Mary’s.
Cuco Martina’s stunning 25-yard strike gave the home side a deserved lead at half time, Shane Long stroked home a Sadio Mane cross on 55 minutes, Jose Fonte headed home a corner on 69 minutes before Long compounded the Gunners misery deep into stoppage time.
First half
After Leicester’s defeat at Liverpool earlier in the day and the excitement of Monday evening’s win against Manchester City, you might have expected Arsene Wenger’s men to be in confident mood against Ronald Koeman’s out-of-form Saints.
Instead, the Gunners spent the opening 15 minutes loping around the pitch making sloppy passes that hinted at a Christmas Day spent feasting like Augustus Gloop. It set the tone for an abject half.
A chance for Monreal on 13 minutes, created by Giroud flicking on an Ozil cross, was the only noteworthy attack from the visitors before the home side, admittedly out of nothing, broke the deadlock.
Cuco Martina’s strike on 19 minutes was a beauty. Meeting a Mertesacker clearance first time he curled home from 25-yards with the outside of his right-foot. An unsighted Cech dived full length, but he didn’t stand a chance as the ball started outside the post and bent around two defenders into the bottom corner. (1-0)
Arsenal’s response? Well there wasn’t one. Every time we had possession we looked like squandering it. And we regularly did exactly that. Mertesacker and Koscielny were particularly culpable on the ball as Southampton pressed the midfield and forced the Gunners defence to make hurried passes.
A nearly anonymous Walcott switched flanks with the ineffective Campbell and did produce one run that ended with a tepid shot on 37 minutes. Two minutes later he should have scored from an Ozil corner but his half-hearted effort clipped the side netting even though he was completely unmarked.Second half
Second half
Southampton twice came close to doubling their lead in the early stages of the second half. First Bellerin did well to squeeze Ward-Prowse out of action as a cross was fed across the six-yard box. Van Dijk then had a headed goal disallowed for offside as Cech flapped at a free-kick. It was a close call, but ultimately the correct decision by the linesman.
We didn’t heed the warning and not long after the home side netted their second. In full self-destruct mode the Gunners gave the ball away deep in the Saints half and, with full-backs up the pitch, were sprung on the break by Mane and Long. The former bound down the right wing and found the Irish international at the back post, who having tripped Koscielny in the build up, was unmarked to stroke the ball home from close range. On the touchline Arsene Wenger was apoplectic with rage, whether it was with his team or the referee was tough to tell. (2-0)
Arsenal faffed around for 13 minutes then Southampton scored a third. A corner that shouldn’t have been given was whipped into the near post and Jose Fonte rose highest to bullet home a header from three-yards out. (3-0)
Wenger made changes, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Calum Chambers and Alex Iwobi coming on for Flamini, Campbell and Walcott, but nothing changed. Ozil, who was kept quiet all match, did nearly reduce the deficit on 79 minutes before Long hit the post as the Saints searched for a fourth in the closing stages. Deep into stoppage time Long did bag his second. Bursting through an absent Arsenal defence he smashed home low through Cech’s legs.
Pathetic. Doleful. Wretched. Ridiculous. Frustrating. Tonight’s performance was all of those things. If our last visit saw Wojciech turn to fags in the shower, you suspect crack might be in order this time. Fucking hell.
We are afraid of topping the table!
Bah Humbug
& your assessment of today’s result is?
While you are at it maybe you would be able to throw some light on the Norwich and WBA results as well.
In a tennis analogy today was a break point we didn’t capitalise on and it’s was not the first ‘break point’ we have had this season.
I dont know about wba or norwich matches, but today we had one too many christmas pie. The player soo full that they slow to react.
We just did not compete.
Well when the opposition can basically foul you in any way and the ref doesn’t give a shit, there comes a certain point when you lose faith that the ref is treating this game as an even playing field and doesn’t have some external incentive in wanting you to lose.
Well done Jon Moss hope you got a nice big Christmas cheque of £500,000 from Man City and the oil sheikhs!
The refs are always influenced by the home crowd. If Arsenal want yo be champions. They have to deal with that and win games despite such decisions. I loved Mesut having a go back at Wayama. Wished the CBs.were as fired up.
Come on man, we didn’t turn up. Long tripping koscielny had nothing to do with the big picture. We played terribly. Like wrightly said, it’s something that players do, and admitted to doing it himself in the past. Dreadful performance.
Its not about Long tripping Koscielny. I cannot get my mind around how a player can keep pushing another player who has just received the ball, with no intention of winning the ball. All he’s doing is going borderline but not actually fouling the player with possession. This is a typical Mourinho/Fergie tactic that has been used since years against Arsenal(Rooney vs Arteta, and the whole of chelsea midfield vs ours come to mind) . I think the refs should allow it for like 5-10 minutes in a game and then start calling fouls because you shouldn’t be allowed to… Read more »
Now having said that, this tactic should’ve been seen coming a long way away vs southampton. I remember Cazorla couldn’t do much against southampton last season due to Wanyama’s pressure. Arsene longed for a player like Diaby, who would be a great answer in a situation like that. Physically strong enough to keep possession under pressure, to turn and keep our offensive game ticking. This is where we need to be smart. I love seeing Santi and Coq in midfield, but I don’t think they would’ve been the answer either vs a team like Southampton. As much as we love… Read more »
This revisionist garbage about the terminally overrated Diaby needs to stop. SERIOUSLY.
Absolutely, the guy was more often than not complete garbage. Lazy, ineffective, constantly gave the ball away in midfield, never tracked back and was as popular as Eboue!
You never saw a healthy Diaby play for Arsenal or France, right?
I watched almost every game he played for Arsenal and he was all the things I mentioned and was up there as the most frustrating players I’ve ever seen.
He did some good, like all players, but i like the guy above am sick and tired of all the revisionism regarding him and his talents because he was extremely unfortunate with injuries.
Seriously guys??……..i know we are all in pain but….i don’t get what Diaby has got to do with getting thrashed 4: 0….really!
Of course it doesn’t, you’re quite right, but I frankly prefer it to discussing the shower of gutless incompetence we saw last night. No, I never actually watched his games, I just plucked my contrary opinion out of the air ? Ordinarily I am very positive about Arsenal players but the “posthumous” groupthinky deification of Diaby grates so much that I wrote a piece in the Gooner about it. It may be that on balance he was better for France than Arsenal, and his attributes and potential were never in question; the problem was his game intelligence and decision-making on… Read more »
Yes, no question we didn’t turn up. But against Man City we didn’t look like anything until Walcott’s wondergoal either.
Anyway I just want to provide another perspective, putting the primary focus on the ref’s performance before that of our team. As a result of refs, you are not allowed to win certain games, like vs Chelsea earlier this season. The ref’s role in this game was more subtle (ie. MOTD will not even mention it) but subtly pivotal.
Doesn’t help that the only club in the EPL that gets a song “same old ______, always cheating” is Arsenal.
Ridiculous. The ref might have been shit but we were not up for it, it was obvious within 5 minutes and we got everything we deserved. Fuck all. But it’s only 1 game out of 38 and the team need to get their shit together for Monday, because Bournemouth could do the same if we’re not careful.
I apologise guys. The ref was perfect today, made all the right decisions, and it was all our fault 🙂 Have yourself a Merry Christmas Jon Moss! 😀
Bonjour get yourself over to untold Arsenal. You will fit right in
Yes it was. The ref didn’t tell us to giving away possession cheaply or make our midfield get dominated by wanyama clasie and mane.
We were utterly dominated. end of
Whatever you say about refs we did not have a shot on target.It was a disgrace tonight
This is a very strange season indeed. We’re still in with every chance but some action in the window is essential. We need two players that make an immediate impact. None of this ‘one for the future’ nonsense. The title is there to be won. Do we want to ?……
Jon Moss can eat shit. honestly would serve it to him as well
Or compute!
But their pitch though… No excuses.
I think Kos was knackered today though. Hope he gets a breather against Bournemouth. We should avoid talks of the title for now and just take the games one at a time, there was too much talk of title after the City game and this is how you get humbled. Lets not loose focus boys, 2015 was a wonderful year, we can still sign it out in style against BOU and hopefully top the league.
The whole team was shite today but our wingers walcott and campbell made it too easy by being static and not making runs behind gave our midfield no options and therefore making it easy for southampton to stiffle us and choke Ozil which inturn isolates giroud and making us inneffective going forward and they didn’t track back enough to help defensively either. Poor showing today!!!!!
I disagree. The wingers weren’t to blame. The Centre Backs could not deal with the high press and were probably knackered. They got their tactics right.
I fear for this team when they are pressed by Barca in the CL!
But before it got to the center backs where was the midfield in front of the center backs? where was the tracking back from the wingers?? And didn’t see how many time walcott kept coming to the ball?? instead of running behing?? thats because of southampton pressing but still a spin a turn and little should and run and you should be aiming to go behind they sat deep which made it harder but when the game was open walcott kept coming to the ball when you see the highlights or if you watch the game again watch for it… Read more »
Lets not forget their PITCH was terrible!!! some players couldve got really injured and per should be played selectively the opposition should choose the matches we play him against quick players why not play monreal???? he’s awful making Koscielny work for two. because when he plays with per against quick forwards like mane and long with flamini as a holding midfielder who doesnt hold its diffult for koscielny because he has to cover for per and ALSO flamini when its supposed to be the other way around its was poor from flamini and per today i dont blame Kosc at… Read more »
I meant Gabriel**
Fucking hell indeed!
Really shit result tonight, a combination of really poor officiating and a total bottle job performance from the team. The officials allowed Southampton to kick us off the park, and we were quite happy to roll over and take it like a load of soft cunts. We’ve seen shit like this time and time again; Maureen and Pulis wrote the fucking play book on how you stop us in our tracks, and tonight, Southampton did it play by play. They bullied us in midfield, shut down our possession engine with some really heavy challenges, and picked us off on the… Read more »
Imagine if they hadn’t had two goals disallowed.
Imagine if the ‘ref’ hadn’t received some extra commission from Southampton and Man City today for failing to call Southampton’s offsides and fouls.
If you allow your opposition to put the ball in your net SIX TIMES, the chances are that a few of them are going to be allowed to stand.
You can put the ball in another team’s net 100 times per match, if the ref doesn’t call anything against you. Fine margins that have a large impact too – what if Long gets sent off? And Wanyama for an over-the-top challenge into Ramsey that led to the handbags? So long as the referee wills it, I could simply injure five of your players thereby forcing you to forfeit 0-3.
I understand the principle of your point, but I think it’s a gross exaggeration. If we turn up and lose by one goal to a dodgy refereeing decision, then I will feel hard done by. We had 11 supposedly fit players on the pitch and they put the ball in our net six times, primarily as a result of our complete incompetence on the night. We didn’t put the ball in their net, or even get particularly close to doing so, even once, allowed or otherwise. That was not the referee’s fault and if the manager and players genuinely believe… Read more »
That is true, and that is why I’m not a manager.
But if teams like Man United of old, Chelsea of the recent past and Southampton today have the license to influence referees, then we should give these referees just as much psychological pressure so they make decisions in our favour. Maybe a penalty or a set-piece at the 0-2 mark. If we are just 0-2 down most players would keep their heads up and fight; if we are 0-2 down and nothing is given our way some players would give up.
That’s fair comment, but then the onus, again, is on our players to show more fight – and also to create some attacking situations where appealing to the referee might be worthwhile. Tonight we made it easy for everybody.
The ref was poor, very poor almost as poor as each and everyone of our players.
We would have lost 2-0!
Their keeper barely made a save. So while we can have complaints about the scoreline, difficult to argue the result!
One step forward, three backwards.
Arsenal… Grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory since 1808.
1886, surely?
Nope. 1808. Long before they were even conceived.
It certainly would explain a lot….
Just weak. Granted we did not play well but by god the refereeing today was atrocious. How more contentious can goals be…
Fuck, does someone always throw a party the night before they go down to Southampton?
Szcz sitting at home in Roma, smoking.
Szcs can suck my dick
Still wouldve lost if we were playing against a group of blind one-legged cheerleaders. Who motivates this team? No hunget, no passion, no fight. We need someone on the pitch who doesnt tolerate this shit.
Let us never speak of this steaming fountain of warm baby shite again.
FFS. There goes my Christmas weekend. Thank you Arsenal for being Arsenal
Deserved to lose, no question about it. But, does it have to happen that 3 goals were cause of a ref’s mistake?
F****in Embarrassing. How very Arsenal. Was having a good day as well.
I didnt so this was just fucking spot on….
Cohesion let us down.. Mosdef
A wonder goal from their part-time right back, a foul and an incorrectly-given corner. We were poor on a bad pitch but it’s just one of those anomalous results I think. In this league, this season, it’s not a big deal.
Really annoying, though.
One of those anomalous results we’ve already had 7 of this season
You’re right, you just can’t move for all those 4-0 defeats Arsenal have accumulated this season.
Alternatively: let’s sack the manager and the whole squad every time Arsenal lose, because these defeats clearly indicate that they’re all shitcunts.
Being serious for a moment, losing away to Southampton is as inevitable as day following night. I don’t really understand why all you lads are getting so worked up about it, especially after our unreasonably good form recently with about half our good players out injured.
I’m not getting worked up just pointing out that we’ve lost several games this season to inferior teams so it’s not anomaly.
If you don’t understand why people are getting worked up about getting destroyed 4-0 to a team on a 2-month winless streak and threatened with a relagation fight, then you’ll never understand it.
I just hope the manager and the people in the club aren’t taking this as indifferently as you.
Exactly!…..couldn’t put it any better mate, had this thumb thing allowed it, i would have thumbed you up 10 times!
My problem is that they stopped trying to win this game at some point in the first half. Apart from that, I agree with you
I’m tempted to agree that it’s a weird one but after the ref let the match turn into a fight we weren’t really up for it. Even before their goal we looked a bit lost. I feel like the player’s might be relying on Ozil too much, which is a bit perverse considering his assist count. It’s like everybody’s just trying to get on the end of things, forgetting that they’re trying to get a foothold in this match and they’re not useless on the ball themselves. I’m not sure at this point whether it’s a good thing or a… Read more »
Fcuking pathetic. We need a win to go top instead we get our arses handed to us by a team that have been bang average all year. Wait for the usual shite from the players. I honestly don’t know if these players have the balls to win this league. Tonight’s result is worrying.
Spot on . We got an Ass raping tonight aNd made shAne long look like messi
Sorry for your … ass?
Or do you like it that way?
Shocking.
I had A bad feeling about this one .
Dreadful
We didn’t turn up. Not the end of the world..wake up call!
COYG!
We had been pretty good recently, hence a performance like this was always round the corner.
After beating Manchester city we lose to Southampton. Classic Arsenal
These results happen every season. We win the next two and people will forget about it.
The one thing I can never get my head around is why he keeps players on after its obvious we won’t win or even tie. Like why was Ozil kept on? Giroud? These are players Arsene won’t rest and who are going to wind up injured.
It’s a shameful defeat. What is the purpose of being in the field? Wasn’t it to play and play good and get a good result? I don’t why Arsenal players always get confused when their opponents scor. What can a team gain by always finish in the 3rd or 4th place at the end of the season? I don’t know why Arsenal uses every opportunity it got to be at the top of of the league.
Positives from tonight:
No injuries …
There’s a positive
Wasn’t 6 : 0
That’s another positive!
Don’t you just love the arsenal!!?
I do actually. Still, they can sleep on the couch tonight.
In the bath actually AND they can make the breakfast tomorrow…..
Ah well, it was a wake up call. We got away with Ramsey and flamini midfield until today. If the boss don’t spend in Jan we won’t be winning any leagues I’m afraid.
Absolutely, they were woeful, and had no control of the midfield at all
Team played like they were hungover
Let’s hope it was all it was!
Wow when we lose we really put in a collective effort on how to play poor. Slow one paced woeful all round performance. Seriously Shane fucking Long made our centre halves look like rank amateurs.
West Ham, West Brom, Norwich and now Southampton games where I really struggle to remember anyone that has played well.
Today was bad, but let’s not go over the top here: we’re still second, one win off top and we have players to return from injury, as well as the promise of january signings. The fact that we lost to Southampton (a very good team that have the physicality that will always expose teams that are knackered) in the middle of winter on a windy old night isn’t a surprise – city, united or Leicester would have done in the same conditions. The fact that we are in a position where it still leaves us as favourites for the title… Read more »
Then players to come back are a while away mate. Transfer window well we’ll see.
But they really could give us an extra push in the final months of the season to force us over the line – as long as we’re still in contention by the end of Feb I think we’ll do it
I guarantee you that City, United, or Leicester would not have been hammered 4-0 if they’d have played Southhampton tonight.
Those teams would have also put in a LOT more fight and effort than the sorry lot wearing the Arsenal shirts did tonight.
And I doubt any of the other managers would have been spouting off to the press about how the refs were the reason why they lost.
I know it’s easy to get angry after a defeat but that was genuinely the most useless gutless pathetic stomach turning shower of shit I have ever seen from arsenal. The players didn’t care. They were either drunk the night before or they threw the game for a bet. There can be no other explanation for that level of shite. Maybe they should donate their salaries to charity as an apology. Fuming and hurt.
Perhaps they were knackered!
Well then we’re fooked against Bournemouth
we keep playing like tonight, we are fooked against any team mate!
Have to say that the last few results preceding this one had me rubbing my eyes in disbelief.
Finally the stars have aligned again – we produced a performance worthy of a side who might as well had suffered a mini-Munich disaster of its own, as far as this season is concerned.
Fuck.
The only way we’re winning the league this year is if our competitors continue to be as completely random as we are. Which, by the looks of it, is actually not that unlikely.
This just demponstrate exactly why we won’t win the title. Wenger’s recent sides have been characterised by a lack of guts. Title-winning sides don’t put in performances like this. What happened tonight was what has happened far too often over the last decade. It wasn’t about ability, it was about grit and determination. And we didn’t show enough.
At least we’ll get top four.
Again.
This season ain’t over Fats!
But it is Paul. For FG it’s always over. It’s the end of the world and there is no hope because nothing is ever good. It’s all bad and that’s the way he likes it. He’s only happy when things are shit.
No he is saying what any reasonable fan has seen for the last 10 years…we have no bottle.
Even city who have been poor this season never got beaten 4-0 by a team on a 5 game win less streak.
This is typical Arsenal…we did this 2008, 2011 and 2013…screw up chances given to us on a platter.
Since when was FG reasonable about anything? A few months ago we beat Bayern Munich and he saw nothing but negatives. If you think he’s reasonable then the business end of your crack pipe must be red hot.
A lack of guts, eh? I guess you’d know.
He’s back!
I was wondering where you were and then thinking it will probably take a defeat for you to show up and here you are. Happy days!
Where the hell was our team shape?! Completely bottled it after going behind. Squad looking so thin…Wenger about to buy a couple nobodies to warm the bench.
It’s this season or out for Wenger….we’ll never get a better chance.
Fair to say all their could have been disallowed for various reasons. That doesnt excuse a diabolical and shocking performance
half those goals were not entirely our fault granted but still,WTF was that Arsene?
Barcelona shaking in fear.
Mertesacker must have had one hell of a Christmas dinner. Pathetic tonight.
No point in picking on individuals as everyone was well below par.
Yep, ,looked like he had been to the Christmas beer festival
I was having a good day laughing at man Utd till I watched that rubbish.We never turned up even allowing for bad refereeing i thought we had finally clicked into gear how wrong can you be very very disappointing
hopefully the result will make arsene active in the Jan transfer window but we all know that’s wishful thinking.
wow.
I figured after Man City that the squad would be exhausted. No room to rotate at all. And so it was… Sure, if the ref hadn’t been hungover too he should have blown his whistle before all of their first 3 goals–hell, he could have sent one of them off–but there is no way Arsenal deserved anything out of that game. No way.
Bounce back for the next two and we might still be top in January. But we need players to come back (and at least one in)
I understand being pissed about the goals conceded but you’ll never win scoring 0 goals. This was a game where it looked like Arsenal were playing without a bunch of starters. Someone needs to tell me whose fault it was on the corner. Was Ox supposed to keep with his man? Or were we needing to rely on flamini growing 6 inches suddenly? Fuck you Shane Long.
Always the problem with zonal marking. You don’t know who should be stopping the big guy running in from the edge of the box. You rely on. Central defenders getting the ball first but when they don’t you beef hooked!
When you sub your DM for a RB then you know you are fucked.
Yeah this is a team that can beat Barcelona. On playstation 4….maybe.
We’re still in a v strong position in the table. The game on Monday clearly took it out of us and with all the injuries we have there wasn’t a lot we could do to mitigate that. What’s frustrating is the extent of the defeat. Conceding 4 without reply….
To be honest I’m not so disappointed. Clearly we don’t have the legs to perform given the injuries. We need to add players in January. Let’s quickly forget this and move on to the next one.
Merry Christmas – it’s a poo in a box!
The commentators spoke about us being a team full of confidence before kick off. A team full of complacency is what I saw. We turned up thinking the result was a foregone conclusion given the two teams recent form. It’s the same every season, have a few good results then come crashing back down to Earth. Lessons don’t seem to be learned. Another good chance to top the table gone begging. Oh to be a Gooner.
No prizes for being top in December…..
It was one of those games where i could tell after 5 mins we were not at the races .
Southampton were so fired up and we didn’t show up
No shot on target either !!!!
Wenger on radio 5 live complaining about refs
Didn’t Monreal get one on target?
So damn predictable, whenever the pressure is on to deliver a statement we turn up like we’ve just come back from a summer break in our flip flops
I’m just stunned once again, I can’t help but revert to that thought that the spirit in this club left with the George Graham legacy….
Guys, I think I know how you all feel right now and I’m really sorry for you..
Cech clean sheet record is too achievable for Arsenal. We can beat bayern after 40 odd games undefeated cos that’s impossible! But if a record/victory is clearly within r grasp ______.
We keep our fans on a knife edge
We are Arsenal!
Can anyone tell me why we bought Gabriel? No changes. I know we have a thin squad but they all look knackered and surely he could have freshened up by starting Gabriel and the OX? I actually switched off at 3-0 because it was just so upsetting that every time we look like we’re doing so well we seem to produce something like that. We don’t just lose, we completely go to pieces and totally implode, and everyone seems to do it at once, what the hell is going on with this team? The only positive is that we’re still… Read more »
Fortunately we’ve only 48 hours til we can put it right and with all around us having tough games we’re ok!
The main problem tonight was with our attacking, the wizard was marked out of the game and we missed Sanchez playing next to him to be an outlet for that Saints’ tactic. Well played Ronald! COYG!