Result: Arsenal 1-1 Southampton
Competition: Premier League
Date: 16 December 2020
Venue: Emirates Stadium
Arsenal: Leno, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney, Maitland-Niles, Ceballos, Elneny, Saka, Pepe, Nketiah, Aubameyang
Subs: Runarsson, Cedric, Luiz, Mustafi, Willock, Willian, Lacazette
Arsenal came from behind to secure a 1-1 draw with Southampton at the Emirates on an evening when Mikel Arteta’s men again went down to ten men.
Ex-Gunner Theo Walcott broke the deadlock as the Saints dominated the first half but the Gunners fought back through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s calm finish after great work by Bukayo Saka.
Hopes of a first win in six weeks were soon put on ice when Gabriel was sent off for two bookings in quick succession. The Saints pressed for a winner but it was Arsenal who came closest when Holding hit the bar with a header at the death.
Pre-game
Mikel Arteta made four changes from the side that started Sunday’s defeat to Burnley. Hector Bellerin and Granit Xhaka, both suspended, were replaced by Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Dani Ceballos. Up front, Nicolas Pepe, back from a suspension of his own took over from Willian on the right side of an attack that was spearheaded by Eddie Nketiah. Alex Lacazette dropped to the bench as a result of the England under-21 international’s inclusion.
First Half
Cautious and conservative. Those were the words that came to mind in the opening 15 minutes as Mikel Arteta’s nervous Gunners did their best not to make any obvious mistakes. Passes went side-to-side, we probed a bit and, to the tune of a constant barracking from the dugout, we closed down with intensity. Unfortunately, devoid of confidence there was no hope of free-flowing, one-touch, pass-and-move football; the type of thing that might get Southampton out of second gear.
Hassenhuttl’s players were so comfortable they might as well have been playing in slippers. It was like they knew Arsenal would lapse at some point and sure enough on 18 minutes we did exactly that.
Trying to intercept a ball in the centre of the park, Elneny and Gabriel seemed to tackle each other. When the ball bounced free it was behind them both allowing Adams to play in Walcott. Our former striker raced away from Tierney to dink over Leno. He didn’t take it easy on the celebration either, which is fair enough given he was deemed surplus to requirements a couple of years ago. (0-1)
The goal didn’t spark a reaction from us. Instead, we went further and further into our shell as the visitors popped the ball around like it was a pre-game rondo. Aubameyang and Pepe looked lost on the flanks, Nketiah was isolated up fonr and our midfield partnership of Elneny and Ceballos ran around looking busy but unable to affect proceedings. The cameras caught sight of Edu shaking his head in the stands.
It took until 28 minutes for us to produce anything of note. Aubameyang pulling back for Pepe and the Ivorian’s shot forcing a block from Vestergaard. In the aftermath, Ceballos fired over.
Things mellowed again before another flurry of Arsenal activity towards the break. Ceballos went down claiming his ankles had been clipped just as he was about to shoot – VAR confirmed that not to be the case – and Saka fired in a dangerous cross. Pepe also tried his luck with a snapshot that went straight down McCarthy’s throat.
Second half
The signs at the start of the second period were more promising. Saka and Aubameyang played a neat one-two only for the next pass towards Nketiah in the box to go astray.
Saka, as has often been the case in recent weeks, continued to look our most promising outlet. On 53 minutes, Gabriel sprayed a pass out to him on the left flank. Faced with a host of Southampton players, the 19-year-old embarked on a slaloming run, doing well to keep his feet, before squeezing a pass to Nketiah. The striker, in the blink of an eye, spotted Aubameyang’s run, flicked the ball to him and our striker calmly slotted home. A goal. An actual goal from open play. (1-1)
For five minutes or so, we looked decent, then Gabriel picked up two yellow cards in quick succession and suddenly we were down to 10 men. Again. Unbelievable. It was really naive defending on both occasions by the Brazilian who was too eager to steal the ball from his opponent; on the second occasion Walcott.
Nketiah and Ceballos were sacrificed as Arteta sent on David Luiz and Joe Willock. Our aim was to stay as compact as possible, allow the visitors to have the ball in wide spaces and then ensure we covered the box. Redmond still escaped Holding to side-volley a ball over the top against the bar. Substitute Moussa Djenepo’s trickery also made space for a cutback to Ward-Prowse. Holding blocked the shot. The Saints again freed Djenepo inside Maitland-Niles but his effort hit the side-netting.
Pepe’s replacement by Cedric with five minutes remaining was a clear indication we were ready to settle for a point. He went to right-back with Maitland-Niles in front of him. Cutting in from their flank, Redmond tried a curler that went just wide. Djenepo went down in the box crying for a penalty. There was contact from Holding, it was clumsy but he got away with it.
Deep into stoppage time, from a Saka free-kick, Holding had a chance to win it against the run of play. The centre-back crashed an amazing header against the bar from the edge of the box.
In the end, we settled for a share of the spoils, thankfully avoiding a fifth consecutive defeat at home. That’s something. Right now, given our malaise, it’s better than nothing.
Rescuing a point at home against Southampton? Arsenal are back boys.
We made them look like Barcelona after Gabriel went off
We were very close to scoring from what I saw. I’m not going to be negative when they are making an effort.
Arsenal are one of the biggest clubs in the world, making an effort is a minimum requirement, especially against a side like Southampton.
They also hit the bar don’t forget
Don’t forget we scraped a late draw against them last season with 11 men
I know these players can perform better once confidence is back, so why not be a bit more positive to get them going.
Great to see the first goal in open play since early october!
Whatever is said on a chat room wouldn’t make the slightest difference
As I said when Trump got Covid and was scolded for wishing him dead, “This isn’t the Secret. If I could wish things into existence he would’ve been dead a long time ago.”
It all feeds into how we react when the fans finally get back into the stadium. Slaughter them when they deserve it, but I saw signs of at least something tonight.
What annoys me about our play , is Bentenick, gets a yellow for fouling Eddie in first 25 minutes. So we stay away from him . Give him space like idiots. Put a forward / Auba on him so he can not foul him. Or risk a red. Gabby gets a yellow straight they away play on his side causing us trouble. Sunday league basic player tactics
Not the first time this has happened
We did not miss bellerin , William , xhaka , lava. Tonight
We were nervous and naive
what did Pepe do after coming fresh from a 3 match ban.
Willian’s work rate is far better than Pepe’s.90 mins soccer is not about doing something spectacular and being anonymous or not helping in defence throughout one’s playing time
They looked much better than Barça. Barça is terrible lately.
Before as well.
I’m aware it’s a big ask but maybe not getting a red card could be added to the non negotiables
The only thing that gives me confidence about Arteta is that in the second half this season, we usually start getting into the game. Then individual errors or poor discipline stems the flow of football by conceding or going down to 10-men. Also, the reaction of the players after Auba scored gave me hope that these players or at least a good few are still passionate about good results. What needs to happen is that second half spell occurring from Kick Off.
Mate I know he gets 15 mins before the second half to talk sense into players but he literally gets days before the first half..
I think there’s a misunderstanding. I don’t mean it is positive that he talks them into being better in the second half. I mean that positive passage of play in the second half looks like the kind of football Arteta actually wants them to play. When they finally start doing it, one player decides to ruin it all (by accident or by seeing red). There is no doubt that they need to be doing it from Kick Off and I’m sure that Arteta tells/trains them days before to play how they play in those positive spells.
Sorry, I misunderstood. Yep, hopefully we can hit that level consistently sooner than later
I remember celebration following the Laca goal that prolonged Emery’s time as coach. At least it appears the players are still happy to score.
Gabriel looked off in a couple of actions from the off and I was thinking he’s at least fatigued
Yep, I agree. He’s also young and the world would not be an interesting place if 23 year olds didn’t make the occasional mistake – God knows I’d be a virgin
The world : Is there anything that could make 2020 more miserable and excruciating for people?
Arsenal to their fans : Hold my prawn sandwich.
There are two things we all have to get used to:
1. Arteta isn’t going anywhere.
2. This IS a relegation battle.
I’m not saying we’re going down. But we are playing worse than the other 19 teams so it has to be. We couldn’t dream of a draw with Man City or Liverpool. Fulham and WBA have managed that.
It’ll take a long time before we get in the top half of the table
More dropped points at home. No doubt we’re in a relegation battle. We will go down if current results and form continue. No denying the reality of the situation
On a sidenote: Could everybody please stop talking about fighting relegation? It’s a disgrace to all fans of clubs which actually fight or fought relegation. 95% of all teams down there (in any given league) are complete shit and they really can’t do better. Arsenal can. Thank you.
I seriously doubt it happens but there have been teams with very solid players relegated before. Take 2002 West Ham who finished 7th the year before with: Glen Johnson, Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Jermain Defoe, Trevor Sinclair, Tomas Repka – all decent international players.
Someone said it further down already. Leeds when they were relegated were a massive team also (CL semifinalists just a few seasons prior). To add to that Newcastle, also very decent players on that team. You’re being naively proud if you think we won’t be relegated just because we’re Arsenal. There’s 5 points between us and the relegation zone – that’s a lost and a draw for us while the other teams win both. If you haven’t already noticed our current form is LDLLLD. So it’s actually f*cking plausible. That said at least we played marginally better today. No Xhaka… Read more »
Did you have a buddy who died of relegation or something?
Hey that was funny. No really. Thing is, try supporting a really shitty team and taste the feeling.
I already do. It doesn’t taste good.
I’m not trying to be hyperbolic. We are playing terribly and there’s no sign of improvement for weeks and weeks. We’ve taken 2 points from 6 games. Leeds went down with a glut of talent. It can happen.
We are certainly closer to relegation than anything else.
There’s a running theme here. Just as things start to look promising some idiot has to get himself sent off and then we’re clinging on for dear life for the last 30 minutes. So so disappointed with Gabriel, what was he thinking!?
Since when did “taking one for the team” go out of fashion?
When you’re already on a yellow?
Many players seemed to play with more intensity today. Unfortunately the heightened effort was not very effective, and too aggressive at times. E.g. the 1st goal and the 2nd yellow.
I think the lack of confidence is the most telling thing about our play.
Yes, agreed. Our forward passes were tentative, and often went to the opposition, I thought. I haven’t checked the stats, but I felt like the completion % must have been low. Honestly, think I prefer that over high percentage U shape passing, but obviously would have liked more effectiveness.
What would the world be if 23 year olds didn’t make mistakes?
Relax, Gab is far from any danger from ‘reasonable’ Arsenal fans
Better, I thought.
Saka was basically sensational.
Didn’t like the way Leno/Tierney had obviously been instructed to take the point and slow it down in the last 30 seconds.
How far we have fallen.
We were playing with 10 men, off the back of 4 straight home losses. Sensible to take the point not to make it 5. We’re where are, table doesn’t lie.
Table never lies. We just EARNED a draw against a high flying team and people are still moaning
Yes, people forget that they are 3rd for a reason. The same way that we are 15th for a reason. It isn’t a fluke. In our form, with 10-men a point against them is good. Not great but good.
The table doesn’t lie – but I believe it’s telling us we needs better manager, not better players as such. Arteta didn’t even smile when we scored. Not even for 10 seconds. Can’t be a fun place to work. Fun, freedom, expression, art, goals. Arsenal back please.
When we scored he literally punched the air and exclaimed in delight. I don’t expect him to be grinning because that passage of play was the BARE MINIMUM. If anything his reaction was correct… It was like “finally!”. My reaction was the same. We used to play like that for fun, I wasn’t delighted, instead I was like “well do it more often then??”
We you expecting him to run and perform a sliding celebration?
How else can we as fans know that the team environment is full of fun, freedom, expression, art and goals?
I doubt there’s a manager around who can do anything with this lot.
Look, I know that this is going to get downvotes because he scored, but I am honestly appalled by Auba’s effort, demeanour and attitude. Shocking captain
He’s at the Arsenal retirement home. Cushy little number for all the +30’s.
Remember how Wenger would only do 1 year deals from age 30? I have no interest in bringing Wenger back, but I wouldn’t mind seeing that policy return.
He carried the team for the whole of last season. Is it any wonder he’s tired?
I don’t have a bad word to say about Auba, don’t get me wrong. He’s struggling at the moment, but he has more right than anyone to do so. It’s not only last year he carried us.
He’s not right in the head at the moment. Hopefully the open play goal will restore some confidence, although he still seems very tentative judging by his touches and decisions later in the match.
As for him being captain, recall he was drafted into the role. Not really captain material. 🙁
I think he showed he will score if there are chances. He will never be Henry and run from the halfway line beating 4 players to score.
Watching him speaking after the game, he looks utterly bereft in confidence. Looking at the ground, not making any eye contact. He says ‘hopefully’ things will improve but his body language and demeanour are screaming the opposite. That’s who’s leading the team at the moment.
He’s always like that, he’s actually quite a shy guy, even after the fa cup he didn’t look at the camera. He tried a lot harder in that game and he scored a good goal, I’ll take that.
Well usually I love receiving cards at Christmas, but this is ridiculous.
Joke cards are nice to receive in the post but Xhaka’s joke intensity and now Gabriel’s two joke cards (first for kicking ball away, second for hanging on) are a fdifferent matter. I think those cost us 3/5 points in two games
This is not Arsenal
Never seen Arsenal players hide away from the ball…70% of the squad does that. Need better players, even with 10 men there were chances to play on counter but we dont have those players …
But we got a point finally.
There is a guy who loves to play on counter… Mourinho loved to use him this way. True he had Ronaldo in front.
I’m sorry but I didn’t see anyone hiding today. I saw them struggle but not hide
I wonder if Edu was holding the pen for Gabriel’s apology tweet? He seemed uncharacteristically under enormous pressure.
This much pain requires a doobie
I have a rule: 2 if we win. 2 if we draw. 2 if we lose.
I’m not sure if that will lift confidence or not. very poor 1st half. Passing was awful. A point at least but I fear for us in the next 3 games. We are just so poor right now.
What happen to Arsenal? During Wenger era Arsenal use to at least have good passing record? There are so many badly placed passes in each game. I thought Arteta would do something to improve it but it is getting progressively worse.
With that said, there was a marginal improvement today.
Arsenal’s passing in Wengers final years were shit. It’s just continued from there since
So Wenger had the customary 60minute sub and Arteta is the 60minute red card.
To be fair to Wenger he usually waits until the 70th minute. Early subs was an Unai thing.
Those days when Kanu would always come on around the 70 mark
Much better in the context of what’s going on.
Yes. If we don’t encourage them when an effort is made, we’ll never get out of this. Arteta would have to virtually take us down to get the bullet.
Nice goal Auba, with great effort from Saka to keep the play alive, and a lovely, cool-headed flick from Nketiah. Beautiful!
Andrew, it was Eddie that provided the assist, not Pepe!
Yep. And it was Saka with the magnificent free kick delivery from which Holding almost scored..
Betterish?!
No.
It was bloody awful.
Could we just switch to another domestic league like Albania or Latvia to have better chances of avoiding relegation?
I’d fancy the Irish League, we already have a nick for beating Dundalk
Arteta the manager is like Arteta the player was for the Arsenal. Commited but too limited to be great. I was a mascot at 6 years old for Arsenal 26 years ago, for the first time ever I feel like tuning out. 🙁
I missed the game, but reading the match report felt like something out of a horror novel. Just when we got the goal and things seemed better, we shot ourselves again on the head with another red card. Nobody can write this surely. Pepe, Xhaka and now Gabriel? What have we learned from the recent games since Leeds?
Has Mourinho sold his tears to a gypsy woman this year to curse us ?
These players need to start losing wages for red cards. If they get sent off they don’t get paid the weeks they’re serving their ban.
It makes really good sense.
No it doesn’t, because then players will stop going in for tackles … And, we’ll be here to complain about it
Three weeks from now: “Bonuses for tackles!”
Given our current malaise it’s better than nothing
Please stop blaming Arteta for this. He inherited a hell lot of issues. Of course he made some of his own like the Willian a d Luiz choise and Saliba exception which on my eyes were wrong.
However I am not sure if Partey a d Gabriel would have joined without them and Auba renewal.
Arteta needs serious backing. With time money and personnel both players and backroom staff.
Bring back Sven and give them the keys! Make Dennis a coach. Support the football side of your …franchise
I think this is a terrible take. Spurs, United, Everton, Southampton and most of the other teams currently sitting above us in the table don’t have better squads than we do. Man for man, we have a fantastic squad. Not Liverpool or City level, but also nowhere near as bad as our current league position would suggest. Our squad is currently vastly underperforming and it’s all down to the manager and his tactics. It’s his job to bring the best out of them and he has so far failed miserably. I hate this “terrible squad” or “imbalanced squad” nonsense. Our… Read more »
They do have better planning. More players happy. More football brains on the backstage. Owners who are trying to improve on what they have a nit just wait for the fiscal raise
He must be blamed. He’s bad at man management. Look at what he has done to Ozil, Guendouzi and Saliba. While Saliba’s mate Fofana is a regular starter at Leicester, Saliba is limited to U23? Talks a lot about non negotiable stuff 7 red cards in a calendar year is the highest in the league by any team. He needs to stop thinning my club.
We wanted Wenger Emery now Arteta out. It is definitely a dream job. I am sure Klopp will come to us before Xmas.
Sorry for the sarcasm.
On the other hand neither the owners will just go away.
I think we need some serious rebuild. And no player older than 30s. There are many rotten apples in the squad
Ppse forget about Orzil in this 21 Century English soccer of Speed ,strength, high press all -attacking and all-defending football?.
Him in a match is like playing 10 men.
In one breath we say it is wrong to sign & field over 30 years players and in the other breath we crying for Orzil’s selection.
WHAT ARE HIS TOTAL STATS IN THE 2019 – 2020 season?
Rubbish.
Who signed Willian and continually kept playing him until it was far too late?
Who ostracised Ozil and still won’t admit that in doing so, he made the biggest gaff of his managerial ‘career’ – all twelve months of it.
Whose idea of ‘football’ is the turgid crap – LEGO-ball – we’re having to endure at the moment?
Who can’t keep control of on-pitch discipline, despite all the endless boring waffle about non-negotiables?
And who’s probably going to turn around and publicly blame Gabriel for ‘letting the team down’…?
This is Arteta’s mess, no one else’s.
Did you start watching The Arsenal this season?
Don’t tell me – you think Wenger and Emery are to blame for this unfolding comedy classic…?
I was actually first taken along to Highbury by my father and elder brother in 1971. I was born in 1967.
But, of course, one has to go back to the 1950’s to find an Arsenal side that made a start to the season as statistically pitiful as Arteta’s cross hoofing robots.
Have you been watching Arsenal this season ?
All I am saying that the decline goes beyond Arteta Wenger and Emery.
check Willian ‘s ratings throughout and see if it is way below other Arsenal players, even Pepe?
If one has average players do NOT expect Willian to conjure magic otherwise the world best players would not shy from going to average teams , but they don’t cos they would become average.Lets be fair , realistic and not prejudiced in our judgement.Aftervresting from 3 games what extra- ordinary did Pepe do against Southampton?
Well it’s an improvement on the last match so I guess that is something.
Oh and for all his shortcomings we can’t blame MA for player stupidity. Xhaka in the last match, Mo almost getting himself sent off as well and now Gabriel in this match. What the fuck were they thinking?
You undercut your case when you note that a lot of different players are doing the same stupid shit every week.
Yes we can blame him – this is the eighth red card in twelve months.
Stupid is as stupid does. We’ve become Forrest Gump FC.
To kick yourself as hard as you possibly can in the bollocks seems to be the new Arsenal way.
Now that’s something the manager really should be doing.
Repeatedly.
Another crap performance but at least we nicked a point.
We were completely outplayed by SOUTHAMPTON at home in that first half and were lucky to be only 1-0 down at halftime. After a decent start to the second Gabriel does that and then we were basically fighting to preserve the point.
At least Auba got a goal, NOT FROM A CROSS! If that Holding header went in it would have been the steal of the season.
A point is better than nothing but I don’t see any real improvement.
Come ON, fats. We got a result. Against a Top Four Side!
YESSS!!!!!
Can’t say I often agree with you Slim, but you’re bang on the money with this post.
Just a shame that we’re scrambling around for crumbs of comfort that a draw at home to Southampton is.
What a shit-show this club has become.
Gabriel bit unlucky on the second foul, Walcott was fouling him first. Kind of thing Var could be used for.
Unlucky a bit for the young man but he gets a pass because he’s been our best player all season.
And was winning everything in our area
Agree with giving him a pass but being unlucky for getting a yellow card when you grabbed a striker going towards your goal like that?
While another red card is incredibly frustrating, the match felt more pleasant to watch overall. Late part of the first half and early 2nd half Arsenal was doing quite good. Had there been 11 men on field maybe Arsenal could have stolen a win. Also it’s good showing for some new players in AMN, Caballos and Pepe. Their football skills seem better than the supposed first team counter parts. I would even like to see Nkeitah again comparing to Lacazette even though he didn’t do much. I feel like front chemistry is bit better here. I would like to see… Read more »
We’re a side low on confidence. It’s all about baby steps. We’ll take what we can get with 10 men against a very good Southampton side.
Still a lot to improve on.
A well earned point
No. Two more points dropped.
This is Arsenal Football Club. Stop blindly accepting mediocrity.
Thankful for Saka. He’s a good one.
Enough now. Wenger in til the end of the season. Ask AW to help recruit the next manager to keep players motivated. Then move him upstairs. The current plan is shit, change it.
Not a bad shout. Won’t ever happen of course, but a nice shout all the same. 👍
Would you take The Ox back? Thumbs up for yes. Down for no.
Ramsey yes
What’s the point?
We could sign Messi and Arteta would have him passing it backwards and sideways.
Considering where we are deficient, you’d definitely take him, play him the middle.
Why would we want Ox back? Incredible athlete, but in terms of technical quality and decision making he was found wanting time and again.
Not a bad performance under the circumstances and important not to lose. Could have won it with 11 players.
I just hope Arteta could see AMN is a good player to have in your team.
His gameplay was very pretty good today. Our right flank felt less vulnerable with him there.
My only critique was that twice, he put his defensive partners under pressure with misplaced pass-backs that were intercepted.
Looked just as quick as Bellerin out there tonight. But we know Hector has Arteta’s bank pin so I expect to see him back against Everton.
I keep getting Sunderland Till I Die flashbacks.
We have a squad that we’ve told ourselves is better than it is. We play formless, aimless football. We keep doing dumb shit. We can’t buy a goal. It looked like the Southampton players were man-for-man better.
I genuinely believe we’re in a relegation scrap.
I’m glad I’m going to the Himalayas this weekend and won’t be able to watch this dross for a week or two. I need this.
barring the first half and Gabriel’s brain fart, this was actually a much better performance, with much improved direct and attacking play and almost everyone putting in a proper shift
Our performance in our match against Burnley was better than this, just unfortunately we conceded a freak OWN goal.period.
Check the player ratings in the 2 matches and you’d see that APART FROM SAKA & AUBA this time they did better than in Southampton even when they lost a man EARLIER than they did yesterday
So much for MA having lost the dressing room.
wasn’t it Nketiah rather than Pepe with the assist?
Take-aways
We have a serious lack of discipline in the team.
We lack leaders on the pitch, our captain had the worst attitude of all.
Arteta did well in handling the game, but Auba should have been replaced by Laca, the latter works at least hard.
We need to keep our eyes to the bottom, we’re a relegation team
Bukayo Saka, you beautiful young man.
More turgid, idea free football. Grind out a result. Stop the rot. Now can we score more goals please. And FFS, no more red cards.
Hate to say it, but nice goal, young mr. walcott. he might be a player, yeah?
Yeah, that was certainly one in the eye for all the Walcott Haters of yore.
Theo was a good lad and always gave his best for us. Took his goal well tonight. Reminded me of those two lovely efforts he got to finish off the scum 5-2.
Back in the day, when we used to play football, not LEGOball.
To anyone still blaming individual players and suggesting different lineups or formations, just stop it!! No team is comprised of only “world class” players whatever that means. 90% of the players in Everton, United, Spurs or the other teams currently sitting above us in the table wouldn’t make us better. We don’t suck because of Xhaka or Mustafi or Laca or any other individual player. We suck as a team because the manager insists on playing shitty, slow, methodical, rigid, rehearsed football and it doesn’t work in this league. Plain and simple. Our squad is currently vastly underperforming and that… Read more »
I actually feel relatively positive after that. A goal (an actual goal!) and a point against a good team in excellent form feels alright after our run of results. Stopping the run of defeats seems like the most important thing, as great as a win would have been. We’re not just going a flick a switch and be a quality team again, so this (at least for now) feels like a decent result.
Awful game, utter crap.
I’m sorry, but this can’t be allowed to carry on, if we are to avoid being caught up in a relegation dogfight.
Utterly sick and tired of our stagnation, incompetence and rudderless so-called ‘football.’
This is not going to get any better until we get in a fresh manager with fresh ideas. Preferably ones that advocate exciting, attacking football – not the dirge we’re being force fed with every game.
Sacking Arteta will solve nothing these players are just not good enough. Reading Wenger’s book at the moment and I’m reminded how clubs came looking for our top players constantly, now we have 9 or 10 you couldn’t give away!!! Going to be a painful season I’m afraid.
So you’re saying Spurs, Everton and Southampton man for man have better players than we do? If we swapped our squad with Spur’s but kept Arteta as the manager and continued with the same exact tactics, do you think we will be sitting at the top of the table?
Did you watch the game we were hanging on against Southampton!!!
Of course they have better players. Ceballos and Elneny don’t get into those teams. In the summer, I don’t recall Spurs or Everton going after Maitland-Niles – it was mid-table Wolves. Eddie couldn’t get starts with Championship Leeds last season. Holding has been doing his best, but the team that wanted him on loan was Newcastle. Pepe is obviously talented, but has been quite inconsistent. Virtually every Premier League team has a player like that. We bought him because he was cheaper than Zaha, who’s been performing better since. Zaha’s with Crystal Palace. Lacazette is exactly the kind of aging… Read more »
At least we are top of the table in something. Red cards table
Someone needs to tell Arteta that rotational fouling is where the players take turns fouling people, not where you rotate which player commits all the fouls until they get sent off.
We have got to be the most brainless team in the league.
We are 5 points clear!
#MindTheGap
🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂
When Arteta first took over at Arsenal he had to make us hard to beat , in doing so IMO he is very concern with what the players are doing when we haven’t got the ball , so if we turn the ball over we are too far apart and not getting into attacking positions because we are in defensive positions .
Better to watch. Gabriel is going to get that Christmas break now😂. Suspensions are forcing Mikel to change personnel.
At least we’ve finally scored a open-play goal.
Everton is going to be a TOUGH game.
In the last 5 seasons. Apparently, only 2 teams that had 13 points on Match Day 12 were not relegated. Those were Chelsea and Everton.
The common factor between those two teams was a managerial change
Given our previous December form against Southampton I’ll take this. But I don’t have to like it.
At least we scored a good goal and Gabriel can just about be forgiven that red for having been one of our only consistently decent performers this season before it. Still… another one? Maybe we should just start with ten men and be done with it.