Arsene Wenger had a great view of Arsenal’s dismantling of Southampton, watching as he did from high up in the stands at St. Mary’s.
What he witnessed pleased him a great deal as the Gunners stayed tight at the back to keep a clean sheet and played slick football in the final third to bag themselves five goals.
“It was a tremendous team performance,” Wenger told Arsenal Player after the game.
“For example we won 5-0 but our goalkeeper was very good and from number one to 11, I would say everybody had a good performance.
“We looked as well like a real team, it was compact, well-organised, explosive on the transitions and overall of course I am pleased for Danny Welbeck who is not at the club [for a long time] and for Walcott that they scored the goals. Overall we behaved like a real, compact, united team.”
In his post-game press conference, he reiterated how impressed he was by the collective effort:
“It was pleasant to watch because we had individual strong performances and collectively as well.
“I liked the fact that we didn’t lose our concentration. It didn’t become easy when it was 3-0, we kept playing the way we want to play.
“It was pleasant to watch and it was a good opportunity to see players who have come back, like Welbeck, be so convincing.”
We certainly did!
Our midfield gave them both barrels.
Lots of fresh legs in the squad. Hope that makes a difference over the rest of the season.
After the ‘alternative facts’ we have been seeing recently in the USA, it is good to see Arsenal’s alternative team being a real team.
Pace up top and pace in the middle of the park…Its not that hard. I love Giroud its not his fault he has different strengths..Wenger needs to know which type of games to start which type of strikers.
Also formations and tactics so suit their strengths.
I think he quite adequately demonstrated his knowledge of tactics and formations against Soton, what with going to a 4-3-3 instead of the usual 4-2-3-1 and all.
In fairness this might be the first time all season that all his striking options are fit.
Niles and Chambo in the midfield did great, but in fairness, they weren’t really tested or under any kind of pressure. Very good win and would really like to see all the younger players another go. Very happy to see Welbz, Lucas and Theo back on the pitch!
Good team performance and nice to see Welbz in the team ??????❤️ Arsenal #KeepItUp
Guess it’s high time lucas should start games ahead of oliver coz his vision and passes are great
Comment:
That Soton team was not their full-strength team, was it? Anyway, we didn’t have our own full-strength squad too yet we won so convibcingly. More of that Gunners, Cruise on; go and crush the Standford bridge. Go and shut them up!
Hopefully they will be knackered after playing liverpool midweek
but there is a gulf in quality between southamptons reserve team and arsenals reserve team. the reserve players we played like welbeck , perez gibbs holding have the quality to play in most of the current premier league teams .neverthless the boys did well. hoping we crush chelsea next week
They had kids/reserve team players. We had first team players. As much as I love us winning in a comfortable way, God knows that’s a rarity, this was nothing more than a practice game against a very, very inexperienced side. It was a good run out for the players that needed game time but nothing more. There was no competition, non whatsoever.
Walcott was coming off an injury, and Welbeck hadn’t played for what, nine months, having had surgery? Perez hasn’t had a lot of game time. You’re right, those players are all first class, but it was heartening to see them slot right in and play well together and in front of a most unlikely midfield combo. It was more than a practice. When Rob Holding handles Shane Long as well as he did, it says something about squad depth and the team’s future. We were fortunate to catch Southampton days after the EFL semi, but the guys out there made… Read more »
Our team was without: Koscielny, Monreal, Ramsey, Coquelin, Özil, Giroud, Cech. And Alexis and Iwobi didn’t start. How do you call that our first team?
Nice pact football. We can beat any team on our best. The only remaining piece now is the lil magician Santi
Very good performance but arsenal were little lucky as they faced the Southampton team who has fielded 2nd team after winning away at Liverpool.but however arsenal performed well they also fielded second team but arsenal has the bigger squad with quality player and they has been able to show their advantage.Their starting 11 was the mixture of expirence and enthusiastic young players.It includes many pacey players like gibbs,bellerin,ainsley,Jeff,Walcott,welbeck,ox these players really thrashed Southampton.
well you would say that wouldnt you, olivier?
Some clowns as per usual on the internet believe their own myth that Bould was a factor. Wenger won the match before the ball was kicked. He played mind games with Ben Stiller convincing Zoolander that he had the really really best looking and most talented young squad in the land. Promptly Soton made 10 changes which did not quite match up to Wenger’s youth project pound for pound. Lest some may forget it was Wenger who has been instrumental in promoting the likes of Maitland Niles, Reine Adelaide to the first team. It was Wenger who promoted Bellerin and… Read more »
Agree that we should temper our expectations. This was a bit of a special circumstance. Soton erroneously prioritised the lesser cup. Can’t blame them in a way because they have their feet in the finals. But FA cup is so much more prestidgious. Wenger won the mind tricks before the ball was even kicked. He’s been revamping the squad since 2011 when he brought in Arteta and Metersecker to provide experience and control the out flow of top end players. The first team is finally fully rounded with both talent and experience in all positions. But I think there has… Read more »
The Ox has been impressive.
I feel Iwobi can also perform a similar function.
But here am I getting nervous about us getting to bare bones in the central midfield.
Ox has such good feet and power but his passing from deep was outstanding.
Fully justifies the money Wenger spent on him buying him off of the Saints.
He’s a player.
I dreamt last night that Arsenal bought Jamie Vardy instead of Lucas Perez. I woke up screaming.