Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Southampton this afternoon was our first since a 0-0 with Burnley in January, and it feels like a day when we let some points slip.
Granit Xhaka fired ahead in the 12th minute, superbly half-volleying home from a Ben White cross, and in truth the Gunners should have made the most of their early dominance.
There were more chances in the second period before the home side equalised, and on a day when we got nothing from the referee, we had to be on top of what we could control.
It was an uncharacteristically sloppy last 20 minutes, and while a draw away from home isn’t a bad result per se, it feels disappointing based on how well we’ve done so far this season.
Here’s how the players rated this evening.
Read the Southampton 1-1 Arsenal report and see the goal here
Southampton 1-1 Arsenal – Player Ratings
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Maybe KT has earned himself a start against Forrest?
You’d hope so. Tomi vs Salah made sense, but against So’ton and Forest you set the tone with Tierney on the left or Zinny if he is fit).
Got downvoted and talked down on for saying he should have started over Tomi (whom I love) before the game.
That Tomi at LB worked a treat against Liverpool. But when we are playing a team that would sit back and have a fit Tierney, he should be starting.
There was no combination play between Tomi and Martinelli today. No overlapping runs. That hurt us a bit.
It’s the managers job to balance the effect of one player versus another. Tierney would have required Xhaka to cover more and be less attacking than he was. Tomi behind Granit allowed granit to cause trouble in attack which he duly did. The really question is what proportion of time should we give to each player to maximise what they can give on the pitch. One player isn’t necessarily ‘better’ than another. But you have to think what could hurt the opposition more whilst not sacrificing the defensive solidity. I’m not sure Mikel would have allowed us to be more… Read more »
Totally agree.
Walcott pantomime villain. If you are going to dive make it look good.
Call me pedantic but I can’t believe how many times I have seen Forest spelt wrong this week
I blame it all on former Canadian goalkeeper Craig Forrest.
Blame Canada!
Sorry!
I wonder how much of Tierney not starting league games comes down to their efforts to not overuse him considering his injury risk. He sort of found himself locked into starting on Thursdays earlier this month and the quick turnaround from Thursday to Sunday might have been too big an ask for his body. Maybe this is the week to switch it up–it would be ideal, though, if Zinchenko could return to start and get some minutes on Thursday and then Tierney starting next Sunday.
Couple recruitments needed in Jan!
More than a couple for me: a defensive midfielder, a wide attacker and a striker
Why didn’t they show us replays of the penalty shout? The Saka booking is also atrocious.
At worst, you could argue Saka went down too easily and didn’t deserve a free kick (or penalty, depending on where you thought it happened). But lots of penalties are awarded for less every week. Very clearly not a dive; a very weak referee.
gonna get sent to the hell of downvotes, but kinda getting tired of him diving tho. a spuds player does that and half the comments here are about calling someone a diving cunt, yet saka’s an angel. boring bias
I watch all matches, never seen Saka dive, not today, not ever.
i watch all matches too, he clearly dived today, as he did against manchester united, and others i can’t remember cause i don’t go around counting his dives, but yea i find the ‘never dived’ narrative kinda delusional
No he did not, he was clearly caught on the defender, not necessarily a foul, but not a dive either.
At least you were right about one thing!
See – I don’t think he dives, but he’s spent two years getting the absolute shit kicked out of him, so if he anticipates that and takes some evasive action, that’s not diving.
If you think Saka dived, you should see a replay of Walcott’s yellow card.
He gets kicked black and blue most games with little protection from the refs so maybe going to ground is his way of protecting himself but, yes, he’s no angel
Wanted to see a replay of the push on Ben White as only had a tiny stream, did he have a shout for a pen or not – anyone know?. Weird lack of replays today.
No replays on that or the Tierney WWE chokehold incident. There was a “technical issue” – that didn’t say that, but you know they would 🙂
Just a tired lacklustre performance today ! As for the ref ? Outstandingly poor !!!
This is a game where if we had a Vlahovic, we could have moved Jesus out to the wing and stood up to their CBs who were dirty today, getting away with everything. Like Varane on Jesus vs Man Utd, arms all over him.
Mitrovic could suit but his fee and wages wouldn’t be worth it.
Eddie has this contract to prove his worth. 2 years or he’s sold.
If we spent 70m on Vlahovic, we probably wouldn’t have signed Jesus.
I agree. I am using him as an example of a type of striker we could be after this January ideally or next summer. After the world cup will be crucial as we have the depth to grind it out till then.
Going into the knockout stages of Europa and a real title push we may need one more top quality body coming in January.
We also want the right personality as Arteta has pointed out time and again.
I agree, for these kinda games we need a vlahovic/Toney/Abraham kinda player, someone who will bully back.
I do worry if jesus/ramsdale or saka get injured.
Viera and nketiah looked proper feather weights today.
Also agree Tommy gun was great against left footed salah. But bring back Tierney.
The Abraham situation would be interesting to know about. How close we were to actually signing him
Why would we pursue players who weren’t good enough to play for teams that regularly finish ahead of us? see Willian, Mkhitaryan, Silvestre, David Luiz, Wiliam Gallas, Danny Welbeck et al
They’re both pricks
No thanks
10 out 10 for the bonus rating.
We didn’t deserve a win but I wouldn’t want to come across that ref again. Quite sure he made some clear and obvious errors today, maybe VAR official was asleep for a couple of hours.
Viera was woeful indeed when he came on! Apart from the first 20 min Arsenal lacked ideas and energy. Dissapointing
Maybe he should bulked up first before playing in this league. The number of balls he lost is just too much.
Hard enough playing against 12 men, but then they even sent on a pigeon
The pigeon gave the ball away less than TP5.
It showed impressive poise to be fair. Never a ruffled feather.
Plenty of experience in the top flight
Not sure if fatigue is really starting to creep in. We can’t maintain w such intensity throughout 90mins. Hope more reinforcement, and right ones come in to supplement our core squad. Hope we can maintain 1st spot till the WC starts.
the photo above clearly shows that Jesus never played bball. If he had he would know when being ridden like that you get closer reach back and give the old junk a hard pull. Usually sorts the defender out.
What about the potential headbutt towards the end, no var check…..very very poor but I didn’t expect anything else
Same player elbowed and punched Jesus in the back in the first half, nothing happened there either.
Seriously, fuck that guy. Had to look his name up; Lyanco. How on earth did he escape that game with just a yellow?
I don’t know how he escaped prison! The head on him.
That guy looks like a walking red card.
Jesus should have come off for Nketiah. Nketiah is a very good header of the ball and should have been central for the last 20 minutes.
Nketia is championship quality, he shouldn’t be near this team.
Like Blogs, surprised Martinelli came off (unless he is still ill or hurt his shoulder). I thought he was roasting their fullback/wingback and it was just a matter of time. Also Odegaard, who I thought was great in the first half and still pretty good in the second.
I wonder if this had something to do with the performance data mentioned in the article yesterday–maybe they saw some signs that these two were slowing down or starting to struggle in some way that could have left them at risk.
Why play in v psv or away in Norway then , ! Save his energy for premier League. We will get out the group even if we played someone else, a kid even KT left wing and Cedric in kt place
good grief- what we’re they smoking in the VAR room? If not being penalized for having two hands around an opponent clean through on goal in the penalty area is not “clear and obvious error” then what is? Is it because the contact started outside? Tomori got sent of for a similar thing on Mount the other day in the CL. And the one on white, clear foul, a foul is a foul! And in general jesus being manhandled, getting a few free kicks would of helped our momentum. Was glad eddie gave some back, and actually the ref didn’t… Read more »
I called 1-1 before the game. I know longer understand the rules of football however. Surely the (soft) punch in Jesus’s back is lashing out and a card at least? Where is VAR?? Then that oaf Lyanco attempts to headbutt Nketiah, grabs him by the throat…isn’t this a red? As blogs mentioned, we didn’t lose because of the ref as we missed chances, but it’s harder to play vs 12 than 11. That Saka yellow for a dive is worthy of a suspension from refereeing itself, what a joke. Jesus needs to turn this form around though. He seems to… Read more »
Full handbrake on in the 2nd half. Fatigue plays a role, but the mental approach in the 2nd half was terrible. We obviously thought we’d go home with the 1-0 win & got punished by a crap Sotton team. Oh well. On to the next one.
why the f*ck don‘t we kill the game when we’re on top?
we will finish fifth with this mentality!
Totally agree, we cant lose that directness we had at start of season, we’re starting to get a bit complacent and taking extra touches, instead of having a shot, I think we only had 12 shots today, that isnt good enough against Southampton
Top 4 is on but only if we don’t suffer injuries as the squad is not remotely deep enough to compete with the squads of Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man Utd, Newcastle and Spuds etc
Very disapointing result. But I feel that the previous matches has pointed toward this even if we have got the wins. We have lacked the ability to kill the matches comfortably lately. We need to be more clinical in the critical momets. Today we did not get any help from the ref either, and it is amazing how he could avoid to give Jesus a penalty. The substitutes did not help much either, although I think Tierny was fresh in attack. Vieira’s contribution in the game was however at best very marginal, and he should be happy not to see… Read more »
The fact started before game was southampton has never lost w this official and it came true again!
These are tired players and fatigue manifests mentally as well as physically. The decision making is a bit off and the passes aren’t good. Mikel may say publicly that the players need to deal with it but I think he’s just desperately trying to get this group through to the break. Zinchenko, ESR and Mo Elneny are are our go to rotation players and we’re missing them badly. Hopefully the players can rest up well and be ready to go again, but we really need to strengthen in January, there are always going to be players out.
Ridiculous that Jesus doesn’t get any calls today when he is constantly hauled down.
Thought we deserved to win, but were undone by bad luck, missed chances, and one defensive lapse, along with many bad calls from the ref. All of those things will happen from time to time, and we’ve avoided them for most of the season. Some things to work on but no need to panic.
Southampton were good value for their point after a much improved 2nd half performance
I usually roll my eyes at talk of ref’s as it’s every week, but today was different. He was getting in the way of play, unable to spot fouls and was just atrocious. Waving play on when Saka was being kicked around and then not calling the foul, what was that about!!!?
We were shit in the 2nd half but at least not so much like Sprs today!!! 🤣😂🤣
I like Odegaard but his shooting is so poor for a player of his quality. Really disappointing and not just in this game.
His shot from Tierney’s cross was strong and pinpoint. He was a bit nervous then. So maybe someone have to kick him in the arse at the beginning and he will deliver.
I don’t have much faith in him. His shots are too much and he would never shoot with his right foot. Not good at all and he gets subbed in games now too many times after gassing and tiring out. Not happy with him at all.
Other teams will see that Southampton got a point off us by manhandling Jesus and getting away with it. We need to be ready for more of it.
Hopefully the next ref won’t just sit there and watch it happen all game without doing anything about it, like this one did.
I don’t think tiredness was the issue; too many of the worse offenders (saliba and partey in particular) didn’t even play in midweek. Jesus, however, looks jaded and I think Nketiah should start against Forest. Would also like to see Tierney come back in, which seems like an easy decision. I feel like in this second half we showed our immaturity a bit and let frustration creep in to our play looking for the second goal, which at least can be worked on
In the second half Jesus couldn’t sprint and shoot, he got clearly tackled from the back when he got into the penalty area.
10/10 for all the lads. It’s hard to play against 11 men + match officials and VARs
Our levels have been dropping for weeks. Despite our excellent forward line, we are not scoring. And that a worry.
Lesson
– ref was against us …Jesus was directly attack no even single yellow card
– we made too many mistakes in the midfield
-some decisions making was poor
We looked really tired in the second half. Jesus could do with a goal. Still, top of the league, and S**rs lost 🤣
Team showing the effects of the Thursday Sunday back to backs. Would have started Eddie instead of Jesus; we were likely going to be on top early on, and probably did not need Jesus then. Based on the second half tailing off that happened against Leeds, could have brought on a more rested and hungry Jesus to lift the woefully underwhelming level that we began with in the second half, as did ‘tierney’s introduction.
Concerned Jesus hasn’t fully recovered from his concussion against Liverpool.
He was playing the next week when the medical team and/or Arteta perhaps could have given him more time to fully recover.
Vieira is young and not really ready to be an impact sub in the premiere league. He’s forced into playing due to injuries. We really need ESR , Mo and Zinny back. Or get some players in come Jan. Nketiah isn’t a winger. Saka and Martinelli need rest at some point. Best thing that can happen to arsenal is none of our Gabriels making the WC team! The Leeds match was a warning of the team’s fatigue. Play the b team on Thursdays. Even if we don’t win the group we’ll have players back in Jan or new ones in.… Read more »
Sure looks like we need another option up front if MA would not put Nketiah up there or even moved him and Jesus around during the minutes he had. 2 matches left for this half of the season.
I know that the goals so far have been shared out between several attacking players but if Jesus, Saka or Xhaka get injured we are completely fucked as there is nothing comparable on the bench (until Smith-Rowe returns to full fitness)
Just two things this morning before i get told to fuck off the last time i had a go at the Arsenal,as i mentioned against Bodo a better team would have beaten us on the night.
This time our luck didn’t hold out and we only got a draw, we have to be able to score when we are on top.
My other point is the standard of ref’s, yesterdays was truly awful.Bottled the penalty in the first half and letting Southampton get away with petty shirt pulling, holding on etc etc, all afternooon
Southampton were good value for their point based entirely on a much improved 2nd half performance. Playing a central defender at right back (White) and a right back at left back (Tommy) might have proved a tactical masterstroke against Liverpool but once Hasenhuttl switched to a back five, this eccentricity was exposed by the law of diminishing returns. Perraud started giving White all manner of problems on the left and Elyounoussi made sure that Tommy didn’t get the chance to overlap and was allowed too much time and space to lay on his assist for Armstrong. For me Tierney should… Read more »