Arsenal: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Flamini, Arteta, Ozil, Cazorla, Gnabry, Giroud
Subs: Fabianski, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Jenkinson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Podolski, Bendtner
Arsenal finished the game with only 10 men and took home a well-deserved point with a final score of 2-2 at St. Mary’s Stadium against Southampton. Arteta made his first start and returnsed as the Gunners skipper after his calf injury.
Southampton started the game on the front foot. In the 4th minute, Steven Davis found space for a cross and captain Adam Lallana found it with his head for the first shot attempt of the game.
In the 6th minute, Southampton’s Gallagher gathered the ball after Monreal had it poked away as he attempted to clear and took a right footed shot that was saved by Szczesny.
In the 11th minute, Southampton wins a corner that is punched away by Szczesny but an attempted volley from Morgan Schneiderlin goes wide.
At the 20th minute, Luke Shaw finds a little room past Serge Gnabry on the left wing and put in a high cross towards the back post. Jose Fonte beats Monreal to the ball and heads in the first goal of the game. 1-0 to Southampton, as the rain begins to come down.
Once again, Southampton found an opening in the 22nd minute. Steven Davis plays a ball into Adam Lallana near the top right corner of the box. With a clever turn, Lallana finds space and rifles a low left-footed shot just wide of the post.
Finally there was some life in the Arsenal attack when Serge Gnabry found Giroud in the 41st minute on a through ball but was called back for offside.
In the same minute, Gallagher had another chance to make it 2-0 when a ball was rebounded off of Steven Davis right to Gallagher’s feet but he missed it wide left.
Near the end of the half, Arsenal won a corner and Mertesacker found space to put in a headed attempt but it was blocked and landed at the feet of Koscielny who put in a shot from close range. It was blocked by Artur Boruc and the score remained 1-0.
The half ended with Southampton’s heads held high as they lead Arsenal, 1-0.
The 2nd half began with Arsenal now on the front foot. In the 47th minute, Monreal found space in the attacking third and played a ball in to the far post that landed at the feet of Sagna. Sagna made a move, found space, and placed a low cross into Giroud, who placed the ball in to the lower left corner with the back heel of his right foot. Tie game at the 47th minute, 1-1.
Arsenal struck again in the 51st minute. Ozil found space in the box and played a ball low on the ground to Cazorla who struck a left-footed shot from the top of the box to the bottom left corner to put Arsenal ahead 2-1.
Two minutes later, it was Southampton’s turn yet again. Adam Lallana found open space in the center of the box and placed it in the center of the goal. It was assisted by Jay Rodriguez. Arsenal and Southampton were tied 2-2.
Giroud did his part defensively in the 59th minute after he blocked two attempts at goal after a scrappy corner from Southampton.
In the 63rd minute, Ozil hit the cross bar after his shot from the left hand side of the box deflected off of the Southampton defender.
The first substitutions came from both sides in the 70th minute. Gallagher came off for Ward-Prowse and Gnabry came off from Oxlade-Chamberlain.
In the 72nd minute, Arteta won the ball in Southampton’s half and played it wide forward on to a surging Monreal who had space to cross but took a shot, which went high and wide.
At the 74th minute mark, Ozil won a free kick from a dangerous position near the top of the box but was cleared away. On the counter attack, Szczesny was called into action and came out of the box to stop an oncoming Jay Rodriguez.
In the 80th minute, referee Lee Mason showed Flamini a straight red card after he came in studs up on Morgan Schneiderlin. Arsenal were now down to 10 men for the rest of the game with the score still tied 2-2.
It wasn’t looking for Arsenal in the 83rd minute when Santi Cazorla went down with an injury and was replaced by Kieran Gibbs in the 85th minute.
Another substitution for Southampton came in the 89th minute when Guly replaced Steven Davis. Podolski was also brought on to replace Olivier Giroud, who scored Arsenal’s first goal early in the second half.
Not much more came between these two sides, even with an extra six minutes of stoppage time. Arsenal will face Crystal Palace in another Premier League clash on Saturday, February 2nd, at the Emirates.
Considering the upcoming fixtures against the big teams and the form City and Chelsea are in, I don’t think those were two points we could afford to drop.
Seems like wenger hates podolski, how does he not get more than 2 minutes in circumstances like today?
How is monreal yet again starting ahead of gibbs? And how did arteta last 90 minutes on that pitch?
Only wenger knows.
Cazorla: we deserve to be top
Wilshere: Believe
Actions speak louder than words.
No effort today, no heart. With all the fixtures still coming, and us off the top of the table and no signings. Title chase over, oh well. It was good while it lasted
I agree about Podolski but that’s it.
It’s just one game, the season is hardly over as is the title race, chin up!!!!
you seem to know more than the coach. you should probably send your application
just because I have an opinion doesn’t mean I think I am a better manager than Arsene Wenger, I thought that was obvious. but apparently not
I dont know what your’e on.. When did you want Poldi to come on ? Southampton were finding chances despite us fielding both Arteta and Flamini .. Monreal was struggling already so putting Poldi on (as much as I would have loved it) would have been a gamble that could have cost us more than we gained.
Southampton were finding chances BECAUSE of us fielding both Arteta and Flamini. There was a gap the size of Atlantic ocean between them and Ozil and Southampton gladly took that space and used it for their game. There was no pressure whatsoever so they were able to start their attacks righter high up the pitch. You can’t play with 2 full on DMs, you need a DM and a box to box midfielder, one who presses the players while the other covers. Today, both of them just sat back and let Saints do their thing. And Arteta’s poor performance didn’t… Read more »
From the start would have been nice.
Never ever start Flam and Arteta in the same game. Not ever…….
Monreal has been excellent recently and didn’t deserve to be dropped. You can’t blame Wenger for Monreal putting in an inexplicably poor performance.
Loads of people angry that Podolski didn’t come on earlier. It’s baffling- if we put him on the left after Flamini’s red, we probably wouldnt have got another goal. We probably would have conceded.
Either way, people criticising Arsene as if they know better, or that they can accurately predict what might have happened in a hypothetical alternative universe where Podolski would have come on, is pure arrogance regardless of the actual merit of Arsene’s decision.
I very rarely made comments, and it’s about the third one in the last 3 years.
Can some one explain to me why so many negative comments when we got a point from a difficult game and still top of the league?
i disagree. we were bound to drop points and this was an ideal time, away from home with on a short four days rest. The only thing that disappoints me is how toothless we were in doing so.
This was an ideal time to drop points?
What are you talking about!!?
There is no such time!! But at the same time no need to panic I hope we up our game
before we meet cunts .
ideal in so much as dropping points is inevitable and i would much prefer to drop points away from home against a relatively tough opponent in a short week than against a fellow title contender which can be a much more demoralizing result
It is not inevitable
That’s silly
Exactly.
Even more so when you consider we have Palace at home on Sunday whereas City and Chelsea play each other. It was a good opportunity to give us some margin for error with a tough fixture list coming up.
As much as I love Arsene, he is sometimes the problem of this team. When a team needs a win, such team starts the best players. Why the F**K is it difficult to start Poldi? I love all the players, including the Serg, but he shouldn’t be playing ahead of a player that has been capped more than 100x for Germany. That’s just some dumb shit
You take each game as it comes. For me, this was definitely “a point gained” kind of game. To be sure, we can’t play as bad as that first half and hope to win anything this year. Talk of Wenger signing a new contract are a bit premature, but let’s keep the faith. We are capable on our day of beating anyone, $hitty and Chel$ki included.
COYG!
Poor performance tonight. So obvious what was missing – pace – and that’s something we’ve lacked recently especially after Theo’s injury.
– But let’s stay positive and hope Abu Dhabi City and FC Chelski loose some points tomorrow.
Time for some blasphemy. Let’s all cheer for a spurs win tomorrow. After all, Tim Sherwood is still a gooner.
And John Terry is still a cunt.
Has anyone noticed – ( !!!!—????—-) how every time brother Ivan gets up on his high horse and gives a spiel about how wonderful the Club is run, how lovely Stan’s toupee is, how wonderful Ivan/Arsene/Stan/Hill-Wood or whoever, are – we either lose or drop points ? The last Gazedis outburst was before we took a pasting at City. I am pretty sure he gave it large before we crashed to Villa on day one. And so on. So……….. Memo to the baldie – Shut the F*** Up you T***** ! And wait until we have won something and THEN… Read more »
Has anyone noticed how people read absolutely everything into absolutely anything.
Just what the **** are you implying sir? -grin-
I was at the match tonight over from the States. First off, credit to Southampton, I felt going in they were gunner be up for a scrap, and they certainly were. Fair play. Having said that, and I am far from Premier League football manager much less Wenger, I thought immediately when we got into the stand and saw the squad…..Arteta and Flamini together with Gnabry (who is a fantastic prospect make no mistake) was a bit too defensive. We were under pressure from the start almost like we have been absorbing pressure this year….only after we were up 1-0… Read more »
FUCK! We didn’t need this. Especially with the run in we’ve got.
Of course most of you will blame Wenger for tonights performance, but I find that ridiculous. The people to blame are Arteta and Flamini. Both were lazy, lax in possession and sold both our defence and midfield short. Arteta was horrifically at fault for the second goal. I have said for ages: we need a replacement for Arteta. Most Gooners seem to live in a world where keeping possession by passing backwards 99% of the time is the hallmark of a quality player, or that his leadership qualities are so vital to the team we can’t drop him. Bollocks. With… Read more »
While i’ll grant you that Areta and Flamini were bad, that’s mainly due to the fact that they haven’t played in about 4-5 matches and were clearly lacking match fitness. And Arteta is a classic pivot his job is to keep the ball moving not necessarily to initiate attacks, thats why he typically plays with alongside a box to box like Ramsey and Wilshere who can initiate attacks. The problem tonight, as has been the problem whenever we play these two together, is that there was no one to initiate attacks with both players preferring to sit behind the ball.… Read more »
I agree Ozil was a different player second half. But we didn’t pay 42 million for him to play like that occasionally. For that money, he should be performing at that level consistently. Maybe its a matter of adjustment, I don’t know. To be fair, I was probably a bit harsh on him there was just frustrated following the disappointing performance.
i think the price tag and the fact that we haven’t signed a player of that caliber for a while placed some massively unrealistic expectations on him. The EPL is still the hardest league to adjust to and i don’t think we’ll see him at his consistent best until next season. Look Bale was signed for 100mil and he’s only know starting to show glimpses of his ability. The cliche remains true, new club, new league, new country, new culture, always takes at least a year to adjust.
Did you even watch Özil in the second half? He was our only impressive player!
Absolutely disagree.
I thought Özil was the one player trying to win the game from about 60 mins onwards. He was tackling, holding the ball, looking for runners, and when he didn’t find them he tried to win it on his own. He was always being closed down by 2 or 3 So’ton players. He showed some urgency and spirit that was sadly lacking elsewhere in the side.
Ozil bashing again they were all poor in the first half so why single him out. He was outstanding in the second half he hasn’t been brilliant every week but it is his first season. If we do pull off the title he will certainly have a big say in it.
I blame Wenger for Podolskis woes. Guy has 5 goals in 8 games, scored 2 in his latest game and Wenger lauds him as one of the best finishers he ever worked with so he’s the guy you put in when you badly need a goal right?
One podolski shot, slippery surface, = goal i kept thinking that over and over.
Somethings not adding up here….
Stop comparing the price we payed for Oezil with the games he paid… Did you see how much effort the team putted in the game in first half? Not very much! What do you expect from one player? Honestly? Did you expect him to be like Messi and play tikkitakka football? He lives of the runs from other players… when there is no movement he can’t just go through 8 men and make a goal. This is not him. We are in for the title and the only thing you can do is moan. It was a bad performance but… Read more »
Flamini avec un classique
He has been under some criticism as of late, in my opinion is rather unfair. But today he was immense and other than Szczesny the only stand out player during the Southhampton game
Ozil I mean. Was starting a topic somewhere else and thought better of it at the end and decided to post it here.
Seriously a roller coaster ride today. Horrible first half, hope in second half, amazement at getting the lead, then our enthusiasm was pared by the equalizer, then Flamini gets a red card… Then Ramsey is out for 6 weeks. Too bad we ended on the low of the ride rather than the high.
What’s the point of bringing poldi at 90th min ? Ozil played his socks off
super sub? although id like to see him start over santi, and shift the “balance” else where.
Santi has score 4 goals in his last 3 games, poldi can’t start ahead of him. He probably should have started before Gnabry and OX tho.
Hopefully this will shock the team into getting there shit together, tonight it looked a bit like the old shakey Arsenal of not too long ago.
Rumour that Mitroglou is linked with a move to Fulham, how much is true I don’t know but seems like a cheap , decent signing with Champions league experience (cuptied this season I know but for the league and beyond this year). Always scored against us aswell!
Better not buy!
Fuck sake Flamini. Just no need. Really silly. He should know better.
A little worried for our centre midfield now! Arteta just back in, Wilshere struggling, rambo out and Flamini Banned! Hopefully Rosicky’s nose will heal soon!
This sums up tonight’s problems for me. I think Wenger was waylaid by the Ramsey injury and was left with a devil’s choice of a line up to work with. Just goes to show that depth is an illusion with all the fixtures a team has in a season. Our midfield was the one place where I felt we had depth to spare. Fucking Agbondlhor (or however fucking spell that nose-breaking cunts name)
Shit! But this is a game we would have lost before.
Injuries throughout our midfield, our worst performance of the season, their first goal shouldn’t have stood, Flamini got himslef sent off and we still came away with a point. Not great, but definitely not disastrous.
Played like shit in the first half, yes. But that was a clear foul before Saint’s first, and it was never a foul on the fk before their second. Lee Mason you absolute fucking cunt of a referee, fuck
Bit premature with the we’re top of the league chant. Although techincally, they’re right. Still top of the league.
Uzil shone brightest today. nice to see him try and take initiative when the others are having a holiday.
Stupid from Flamini, no goal threat whatsoever and he does that. shit!
Why did we play that badly in the first half? Anything to do with the virus reported earlier? In truth we did not deserve a point in this game but that’s what champions are all about, taking points even when you don’t deserve it but i think we would have scored a late goal if not for the red card. To cut the long story short “A point gained” it was very important we didn’t lose the game because both chelsea and city will also drop points in their next league games. Now wenger make the needed additions(signings) and we’ll… Read more »
Strange how the timing of goals etc sets the perspective. Given the poor first half performance, a draw sounds like a point well won. Like if we’d come back from 2-0 down. On the other hand, losing a 1-2 lead to a lazily defended goal when we were well in control felt like 2 points lost. Then surviving after going down to 10 men made it seem like a point gained again. Every team can stumble. City and Chelsea will both exceed expectations if they don’t have a similar experience between now and May. And we still have the chance… Read more »
Stop taking pictures of people you don’t know old man. it’s rude!
1) We were short a creative player or two so Southampton could press at will.
2) Southhampton were fakking good in that first half. They pressed the shit out of us.
Points dropped, Podolski looked like he was limping after he came on.. but I will take away 1 positive. Ozil.. pace, aggression, shooting.. More of that please
Not good at all. Very few chances, and worst of all very little fighting spirit from the team. Towards the final 30 minutes or so Ozil kept running the ball across and around the pitch trying so hard to create something but the response from the team was ineffective. It was clear how much it meant to him to win the game, but surely not clear among the rest of the team. It’s a damn shame considering it’s his first season as a Gunner and his seniors can’t follow his example today, let alone set their own, which is how… Read more »
Excellent formatting, Mr. Band
What we need here is more bold, avant garde poetry like this.
Bravo
oh well… we’re still top of the league!
And we need to be a lot more physical against teams like southampton
This I agree with. We were getting shoved around an awful lot.
What, exactly, did Podolski do wrong? He’s now behind both Gnabry and Ox in the pecking order it seems. It makes no sense to me. Gnabry is a massive talent, but Shaw was running wild down the side there. Could’ve used Cazorla or some other experienced player there to prevent that, with Podolski on the left.
If you cant win don’t loose keep the faith hard fought point disappointing i know heads up bring on palace
Missed my flight because of this poor game. Why arsenal why. Let’s hope chelsea and city chock tomorrow.
Cant be happy with a point. You would have to question why we were so bad in the first half. not up for it and with tough away trips to come these are very expensive points to drop. citeh and chelsea should do what they have to do to push us down to 3rd. might be the wake up we need. as an aside what exactly is podolski’s role in this team. giving him a few minutes is pretty pointless. anyway. pretty annoyed.
Too pissed off to be relieved that we managed to salvage a point form the worst I’ve seen us play in recent memory. And then extra-annoyed that we should have to feel that relief in the first place. Can’t believe we played so poorly.
Hmph. Four days to regroup. Let’s get started now.
Signings! Please!
Ramsey out
wilshere out
cazorla out
We need at least 2 signings.
Oh! And flamini out too. Owk maybe 3 even if they are not quality, just bodies!
To make this clear, I mean out injured, not out asin they are crap!
Ramsey out injured
wilshere out injured
cazorla maybe out injured too
flamini red card misses 3 games! So we need signings or bodies to make up our numbers, we are not losing hope just because we drew a mtach we should have lost are we? COYA
*match*
This is comedy
Ozil was class second half.
Flamini needed a muzzle.
I thought Ozil was fantastic today. Arteta and Flamini cannot play together. Gutted at the two dropped points considering our run-in.
Am I the only one who is worried sick by the lack of pace in our wings?
We don’t even have 1 winger, with speed that can push back defences.
Chambo is back from injury and Gnabry is too young. I think we need 1 quality winger and 1 Center forward, ideally to challenge for the title.
Yep, I was amazed he didn’t bring podi on earlier.
Rambo, Wilshere, you guys better be back before Munich.
Of course it dosen’t matter they come back or not for Munich ’cause this season we can’t win the CL of course. Just i hope we focused on FA CUP and EPL and hope they will be there for this matches! just see the reality and facts
Why are you so sure?
For all I know we’ll be treble winner at the end of the season.
that really is the least important game we have coming up – Focus has to be on staying competitive in the League and continuing in the FA cup.
Of Course! I’m angry with draw and afc performance too. More than everyone. But If you want to be The Champions! You should do like a Champion everymatch! And the solution is focus on your team! So our team chocked in first half and in other hand in whole match! Our team didn’t expect high ball possesion from SFC but they did it very well and won battles too. With missing Jack & Rosicky , we had not speed to creativity. Defensive in centre midfield was more than need. Look at Jack, when he gets the ball, he starts the… Read more »
Arteta wasn’t match fit, silly tackle by flam, scz was class and what does Podolski have to do to start a match?
Arsenal was terrible, Southhampton played extremely well. They not only hustled well, but some of their ball control, ball retention, turns, and interplay was outstanding. The outcome could easily have been worse, I hope it is just a blip from Arsenal.
Well, if Arsene didn’t want to buy before, surely he has to now. How much encouragement does he need? Clearly the gods have decided we need more players!
well it says a lot of how far we have come, when a match we were probably destined to loose ends up in a draw and people are disappointed, infuriated, depressed.
We should probably have lost this match, if this had been the old Arsenal. Me? I will take the point and hope we learn from this.
Breaking news: Arsene Wenger makes a change, after the game in way to london, but unfortunately it’s too late!!!
It was the exact right time to change his shirt. Just like whenever I’m getting intimate with my wife, I’ve never arrived early, it’s always right on time.
Glad to see Ozil trying so hard to win the game, however no support from the rest did not help his cause. His commitment is a good omen.
We ned to salute the players they gave their best today.Ozil n Sczs ned to be commended flamini went one minute of madness.
I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for AW to sign anyone …unfortunately. I just watched the Liverpool game and the contrast was amazing: they played with so much pace and positivity.
Dissapointing game neva lose fair…
What waa wrong wit the commentators I don’t understand. Didn’t take a sec to dismiss their bloke’s handbal while claiming Kos could’ve given away a penalty when clearly it wasn’t.
There goes that Anti-Arsenal media agenda again.
If only Spuds and Citeh could both lose tomorrow
maybe we didn’t drop two points since we were out played for long parts to a degree…..sixty minutes I would guess.
Southampton played well, and could have added another.
we missed something(s)
Flamini and Arteta just can’t play together well, we need a piercing midfielder that will make penetrative runs not just let the opposition attack us and stand off them.
Southampton played us off the park first half and should have had a penalty in the second, point gained me thinks
Yeah commentators were right twats.
I had to turn the sound down coz they were pissing me off so much.
We’re top of the league and they can fuck right off.
Spartaaaaaaar
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01844/Mathieu-Flamini_1844400c.jpg
Disappointing games and nobody can or will denied that but my fellow Gunners don’t forget the fact that invincible belong to the past and we must be “happy” for draw that could be worse, we can just hope our team do that better next time and we have to stay behind our team cheer up guys we are still top of the table until tomorrow who knows if Tottenham can win or hold City then we can be on top for another week. By the way we have to stop to think that we knows better than Wenger it’s not… Read more »
First of all, AW should NEVER EVER EVER start flamini and arteta together again. NEVER! Play anybody else with one of them, anybody else than those two together! Fuck it play cazorla there and poldi on the left, if rosicky was available for the FA cup how come not today, before the game I thought we needed him for this game! Playing gnabry too often Is a mistake, flamini should have out-grown his silly ways by now, he should be ‘experienced’ shouldn’t he? Arteta was just plain miserable, the defence didn’t cover themselves with much glory either, Per was falling… Read more »
Rosicky wasn’t available for the FA Cup or the Fulham game
This was a must win 3 points given what awaits. I fear this is the start of now we are in 3 competitions and now we are not.What is the use of history if we can’t learn from it? Arsenal’s history has been all to predictable in recent years. If we get beaten by Man u then Wenger has to go. I feel a heavy weight of foreboding because Arsenal’s history tells me that we are beginning a period of second best .