Charlie Austin gave Southampton the lead against Arsenal in the first three minutes and when he was one-on-one with Petr Cech just 4 minutes later he could have easily made it 2-0, pretty much the same as Man United did to us last week. Petr Cech managed to foil Austin on the second attempt and the Saints striker had yet another chance straight after that came off the post. Our big keeper was very unhappy with our defence after the game.
“We deserved to get a point for the second half performance. We put them under pressure and created more than in the first half.” Cech said. “We don’t deserve all three because we gave them good chances in the start and could have been 3-0 down.
“The first 10 minutes cost us the game against Man United. And it almost did again today. It is something we have to work on. 1-1 is a fair result.
“Every player needs to ensure that when they step out of the dressing room they are ready to compete.”
He is right of course, and it is likely to be Per Mertesacker that gets the blame, although he was only playing because last week’s pantomine villain was Shkrodan Mustafi, who was unavailable today. The fact is that our defenders are getting old, and the younger ones are not yet up to scratch.
Perhaps Wenger should condider a centre-back a priority in the January transfer window….
Admin
Why is it the defence faffs about in their own area or around our 18 yard box and then gives it to Cech who just hoofs it upfield yet the defenders never put their laces through the ball to clear it? Yeah nice to play the ball out of defence but if necessary just effing clear it guys!
I don’t get it.
Arsenal do not have any leaders in defence. Monreal, mertislower and Bellerend are all poor.
Arsenal lost last summer when they offered Wenger an extension
Did we really think we could beat Southampton?
I didnt see the game too much for my heart condition
Lucky Arsenal when Giroud came to the rescue again
for a humiliating defeat!!!\
I just dont recognize Arsenal anymore …….sorry!!!
how longs a piece of string?
no idea son
but what i do know is it takes wenger more than a decade to build a team
and he still cant manage it
bring back theo put him in goal
play jack as a false number 3.7
and give mustafi a fecking teddy bear
this club is like a soap opera – i love it
you know what forget it why bother
I don’t think it is about talent but rather about coaching. Our players don’t come across as if they know their role and where to be and what to do in what conditions.
You’re right. I said it last week. It does not matter who we have as defenders if they are not drilled for long hours until it becomes second nature.
Unfortunately that is not Wengers way so we have the constant comedy of errors.
Bring back George Graham as a consultant to school defence! Ask Tony Adams who he learnt from and it wasn’t Arsene Wenger.
Have to respectfully disagree mate.
Ramsey
Coquelin
Xhaka
Welbeck
Bellerin
Walcott
Iwobi
Giroud
BFG
Monreal
Are ALL average Premier League players.
Wenger should of been giving his walking papers years ago but Arsenal is a middle of the pack club based on collective talent.
Again jmwo!!
It is clear they don’t want to play for Wenger anymore.
So the issue is the manager…
Nonsense. If they didn’t want to play for Wenger we’d be in a Chelsea situation when their players downed tools ie in the bottom half. Even Nasri who notoriously doesn’t care less what he says in public has always been respectful of Wenger there is no evidence that players don’t believe in him. What your seeing with Sanchez/Ozil is the fact they can get a bumper deal elsewhere, that we financially can’t guarantee competing for titles and they don’t owe the club anything so have little reason not to chase personal glory/paychecks. It’s got nothing to do with Wenger. Just like Coutinho wanting to move is not to do with Kloop. Or Walker leaving wasn’t because of Poch.
What we are seeing is a team who are lacking in certain departments and struggling a bit for confidence but who are still 1 point off where they should be end of season and 1 point behind the 1 team they should be ahead of. It’s worth noting that Chelsea/Liverpool/Spurs are all in the exact same position BTW should they sack Conte/Kloop/Poch? Wenger haters are so absurd. Face reality give Kloop/Poch a decade it’s unlikely they will win the title either and highly likely neither will position their teams in the top 4 consistently. Chances are Man Utd may well be in the same situation too as the rest this season battling top 4 when they start getting the rough rub of the green. City have been both the best consistent team in the league the past 4 years and the biggest underachievers which highlights just how far ahead a team that has entire rich country behind them can be.
Arsenal fans need to really get a grip either we get a sugar daddy or we are the 4th richest team in the country (some margin behind the teams in front more so than the gap to spurs/liv.) and long-term it will take an effort to keep Everton at bay but at least we have at least 3-4 years before that becomes a real issue.
The coaching part really pisses me off when A.) our results are actually perfectly reasonable for our finances and B.) because we have literally the best record when it comes to ex-players not kicking on when they leave us, far better than the richer 3 above us. It really suggests our transfer policy has been poor which is why I’m not surprised the board have chosen that area to majorly shake up/take control away from Wenger rather than the manager/coaching area. Despite popular opinion Wenger seems to be pretty masterful at getting the best out of players it’s near impossible to find an example of a player who outperformed their time at Arsenal certainly none that kicked on more than expected. Just look at the OX who should be kicking on at his age and who is under a supposedly genius modern manager who can both coach/get tactics right unlike Wenger! Fabregas is probably the closest and if anything he has ended his career being a little less great than people would of expected from when he left Arsenal.
There is a reason Pep/Jose have never considered the Arsenal job it’s because Arsenal would never provide them the tools to do what they do so well. Same way there is a reason Kloop chose Liverpool (closest to Dortmund level of support/history.) We never could attract these mangers we could of got Poch but that was a gamble for Spurs, look how many they tried before to get it right for an idea of what our future looks like beyond Wenger. Arsenal are the top job for any manager who can’t get a properly top job. Which means whoever we get will be a gamble of sorts but we will have a lot choice from the 2nd tier/gamble brigade when the time comes. We are 100% better off waiting 2-4 years before doing so because by then Spurs will have burnt out through the stadium move/wage structure/losing some talent like they did walker this year and likely Kloop will have lost his player draw after Liverpools continued struggles to be defend well or beat poor teams get continually exposed. Then we can change manager in a better environment slightly less competitive environment which is almost certainly what both Wenger who loves the club and the board have been thinking about in their decision making. Would be very surprised if the top 4 isn’t City then some random order of MU/Che/Ars this year regardless. Spurs/Liverpool have looked far less convincing that us not that you would know it reading the comments here.
Nonsense, again from you. Arsenal are only set up to make money and even then they do that badly. If we are so good as a team how come are best players all want away even though we offer them more money than even the likes of Man City or PSG are willing to pay?
On another note I see all your posts are in the middle of the night. You need to get back to doing your rounds.
it’s simple we don’t have players who can take on defender are player players who make them self available for crosses inside the box when team go ahead they stay compact and norrow knowing we don’t have players to break the down only lacazette inside the box an we expect to win please ozil should be substituted at half time for giroud with Ramsey replacing him
Don’t know what game you watched, but Ozil was the only player that had a half decent game.
Lacazette has been wasteful these last two games, I say give Giroud a start and bench Lacazette or move him elsewhere.
No, we lost the game before it even started with another yet guessing pick of the team; player must be really tired and confused, lost, out of position, some benched but score and some on the pitch mocking us all because wenger is lost himself, slave of the board…Awful management in and out the filed…
We are a comedy club . A club that will entertain neutrals but will not win anything big. Will be ridiculed by pundits & mocked by rivals.
But the most comical thing is that our fans will always head into a new season thinking that we’ll win the league!
Lol
Most neutrals find the Arsenal situation absurd and think we’re a perfectly well run club. Only rivals needle Arsenal ie the 3 richer clubs, Spurs and lately Liverpool purely because dethroning us is their only chance of consistently hitting top 4. The rest don’t really understand what the issue at Arsenal is. Reality is they don’t understand why Arsenal fans are so pissed off when comparing to their own situations. This is also probably because they haven’t been so heavily influenced by the media/direct rival trolling like our fan base and haven’t been brain washed into thinking a club who never consistently challenged for titles should now be doing so at the hardest time to do so in the history of the league.
You clearly don’t watch the TV analysis before and after the games. Change your glasses mate as you are not watching what the rest of the world sees.
There was no urgency, no closing down and no tackling. Saints showed how to do it, defend as a team and then break and attack as a team. The only thing we are good at is attacking on the break and even then we tend to balls it up. #disapointed
Again and again.
Why do the players make the most difficult passes/one-two’s to each other 4 yards away from the goal.
I just can’t go on.
He..he. That’s Wenger’s couching for you.
Thank you City ?
Only positive is we are still in with a shout of top 4, but realistically I think we will finish 5th or 6th.
Why? Spurs/Liverpool/Chelsea have shown absolutely no greater consistency than us.
To elaborate further they all have similar concern with us. Spurs lack depth and struggle without Kane or Toby at either end. Chelsea have been entirely hit and miss and literally got beaten by West Ham this very weekend. Liverpool have by far the worst defence and make far more defesive mistakes than us. All those clubs are in the same boat as us, don’t know why our fans seem to think we’re especially worse.
Your argument is sickening. So if Chelsea, Spurs and Livpool have problems, Arsenal must of necessity have problems too? We should encourage our team to be the best they can. Point to the great performances of Man City and not the failings of others.
change mode to man city..
hmmm
MU lost, i guess, the EPL is now done for Champion crown, no way Gardiola slips, 11 points ahead on MU, 14 on Chelsea, and 17 on us! So, it is a fight for 2nd place between MU and Reds, Spurs and Chelsea…We have no team to rely on at all since incapable on put right 11 players on the pitch. Ridiculous; all it takes is 4 players in the back, we have them. then 2 in the middle and 4 attacking.
Wenger is destroying Bellerin and that side of the pitch doing so, he was best in the league, top 3 in Europe; out of position; nuts!
Cech
Bellerin, Kos, Chambers (not Mertasacker), Montreal
Coquelin & Sead (Beef up middle)
Wilshere & Ozil
Walcot Laca
Walcot always been a good player as he scores and ad speed or can cross.
Why play Sanchez who is not concerned and ruins the team harmony / spirit? Why play Xakha for, Ozil is there to pass the ball, Sead can do what he does on left side of our middle defense and he knows how to bring danger on wing, cross and score. Then what Ramsey brings over Wilshere? Defend? Attack, dribble, set attacks, he does it all better than Ramsey who shows limits and nothing special, he is Wenger favorite kid, but grown now and again; out of position; better with Wales for that even tho average player but great team spirit and sacrefice for his daddy.
This team has great defensive, character, spirit, speed, attacking, club idenity, creativity, can start Giroud or Iwobi meaning good players from the bench to keep game going… Must be awful to cope with all these changes, out of positionning and crazy team picking. That’s why we look this way, lost, no identity…Since Wenger won’t go; we must bring Henry who will give a great spirit and motivation to the team, help Wenger pick, assist him for year, win title with him and make a beautiful story to close the Wenger book. Name and give him a spot ike Fergie at MU, call it a day. Henry doesn’t need Wenger to do better, he is home legend and a winning spirit : wenger must step , one year Henry will have to be patient as Wenger wants all attention… Tuff to be a gunna now days…
“Walcott has always been a good player as he scores…. !” What planet are you on fella?
I love your comment “Perhaps Wener should consider a centre back a priority in the January window.” Rather like saying perhaps we should field eleven players to start games. Perhaps Wenger should have thought about buying a decent centre back when Sol Campbell left AND a decent CDM when Gilbertpo left AND trying to motivate players AND actually do some defensive coaching AND A LOAD OF OTHER OBVIOUS THINGS HE NEVER DOES TOO. Perhaps he should indeed AND perhaps we all will see a load of flying pigs anytime soon!
Perhaps Wenger should of stopped City/Chelsea being taken over. Perhaps Wenger should of made the government give Yaya Toure a work permit when we signed him. Perhaps Wenger should of forced Ronaldo to not change his mind and move the richer/historically bigger United. Works both ways.
Perhaps Wenger should prevented Eduardos leg break and what was the real nail in the coffin that wrecked the team mentally stopped the referee giving the penalty for the dive in the very same game. Pouring salt it what was already a mentally damaging scenario for anybody in the world. List is endless if you want to play that game and trust me Wenger has had far more going totally unfairly against him than he’s made mistakes. City/Chelsea alone is so monumentally unlucky it’s staggering. Any other time in history Wenger builds a dynasty on the back of his performances/foresight to build a stadium. Fact fans can’t see we are only still relevant because of the great work he has done in the last decade is the saddest part of all. Liverpool not us should of been the 4th place team!
Perhaps Wenger should coach the defense
Perhaps Wenger should teach his players to track back
Perhaps Wenger should bring some cutting edge
Perhaps Wenger should motivate the players
Perhaps Wenger should stop buying such bang average players for big money
A point of correction but it was David Rein and Danny Fizman who decided to build the new stadium not Wenger.
Last season we had the third most expensive squad.
Wenger is clueless and should have been pensioned off years ago.
Arsenal will never win the PL with Wenger in charge, NEVER. How can you have the most experience in the league as a manager & still not be able to make a great team? It baffles me how some people still have faith in him. All our promising players are regressing badly, stupid errors by the defense, poor midfield and mediocre finishing. All these are supposed to be corrected by the manager. We need to get rid of Wenger before we start fighting for relegation. We need to take our club back. Change is now needed more than ever, we are stale & piss poor on the pitch. We are displaying all the recipe of a club in decline. I’m just praying for a miracle for this my beloved club.
All you guys are now blaming both coach and players alike.wait till Wednesday when arsenal will put four past westham,you’ll change your tone to praise singing like four things you guys learnt from the game and whatever crap you can think of.erratic fans behavior like which you can only find in arsenal should make one reconsider his support for arsenal.you know so much about football but I haven’t seen any of you applying for coaching job at atsenal.
@ Lawrence Pepple What a dumb comment. Nobody from here would be given the job even if they applied so what is the point of your comment!
As for blaming Wenger and players alike – YES. Who do you think shares the blame? The people selling the programmes or maybe the TV lights.
There is nothing stopping any of the commentators dedicating their life to coaching/football. Mourinho made the transition from translator it’s perfectly possible with the right drive. Reality is none of you have the knowledge or the drive to ever come close to landing a mangers job never mind being even 10% of Wenger’s level. Kloop/Conte/Poch all in the same boat this year in terms of performance sack them too?
Your man is a dinosaur who should have gone years ago. Part of the problem is that the players just see him as an out of touch joke and are quite open in their contempt of him.
So get back to your rounds of the mall pal.
I can’t believe some of the fans. Do you think we should be winning every single game? It’s EPL. Anyone can beat anyone else on any given day. That’s what I love about this league, it’s unpredictable, and it’s entertaining as hell. West Ham beat Chelsea yesterday. Everton (same one that we wiped the floor with) played 1-1 with Pool today. Do you think their fans are having the same meltdown as Arsenal fans? I doubt it. Yes, it’s hard to be a Gooner these days. Yes, there are ways for improvement. But for crying out loud, stop being so effin fickle every time we lose or draw. Soton are a decent side, so give them some credit. And give some credit to our guys as well for not giving up until the end, and snatching up the late point. Having said that, I’d like to see Bellerin and Sanchez dropped. Both have been atrocious lately, and deserve to spend a little time on the bench.
Why are you so happy we have lost another game?
We drew. Liverpool drew. Chelsea lost. Man United lost. Spurs won their 1st game in ages and are still behind everyone including us. We’re 1 point off top 4. Fans acting like we’re in crisis and battling relegation. Couldn’t make it up. Most sickeningly entitled fan base in the league. We’ve long since over-taken Liverpool in that regard. Embarrassing!
You are embarrassing. Somebody claiming to be a supporter who is happy how Arsenal are run! I assume as you are clearly not very bright that you are a relative of Gadzidis or even Kroenke.
Vlad has made the first sensible contribution I have read today.
Another happy loser.
Even Cech comes out blasting his team mates.
Honestly, they are not going for a win. You can see from their body language.
I think the team that played in mid week, should play at St Mary’s.
Agree. First 10 minutes were a shambles more so than last week where individual massive errors were more to blame than the complete rubbish we displayed early on today. They rectified it though in the end and even City needed a last gasp winner themselves against the Saints. Still the league is tough unless you can buy all the very best young talent Real/Barca/PSG leave behind ala City. None of Chelsea/Liverpool/Spurs look more convincing than us or have more than 1 result cushion either and I doubt United will stay out of that battle either unless they continue to get very lucky.
BFG was so bad but honestly i don’t blame him because she showed many times how good he can be. he literally pulled a miracle against chelsea in the final of the FA, after one season without playing. But you can’t expect him to perform if he is getting a game every month, especially at his age. Kos/mont were still very bad in the second half as well.
i still feel wenger is cluless about subs. An attacking midfielder like Iwobi or wilshere should have been the first sub or come in at the same time as Giroud as we lacked was the killer pass in the last third. Give a decent pass to lacazette and he scores 80% of the time, that’s the kind of striker he has always been.
I think Alexis Sanchez is deliberately being sloppy to force Arsenal to sell him in January. How else do you explain him giving the ball away so frequently in a game, sometimes as many as 15 times?
30 times against Southampton and 32 against Man United
Wow, I didn’t know that statistic.