Southampton were stronger but the ref gave them the game

So Arsenal still can’t beat Southampton at St Marys, despite our opponents being without a win in six games going into the match. With Leicester being soundly beaten earlier in the day, the Gunners could have ended the day on top of the pile, but now we stay 2 points behind the Foxes and now just one ahead of Man City.

Despite the embarrassing 4-0 scoreline, Wenger thinks that the referee gifted our opponents their first three goals. Le Prof said after the game: “I think Southampton made the game very physical and we lost many challenges and that explains why we lost the game. That is one aspect, so well done to them.

“The second aspect is that on the first three goals we were really unlucky with the decision of the referee, the second goal was a foul and the third goal was a goal kick. If you are a bit under level and on top of that you have the first three goals against you with decision-making, it is even more difficult. We hope in the next game we have decisions like that for us.”

Wenger was smiling wryly at the defeat, and the media asked him if he thought it funny. He replied: “I smile, I don’t smile. What can I do about it? I cannot influence that. I must say they were sharper than us in the challenges and on that front we have to look at what we can master. We cannot master the decision of the referee but we can master our own behaviour and I believe Southampton looked stronger in the challenges and we lost too many tonight.

“I said before the game at the moment if we are one point ahead or one point behind it is not too important. It is the performance that counts. We were not good enough to win the game and we have to look at that. On the other hand we can’t look too much at that as in 48 hours we play again. We were disappointed and frustrated and the only way is to respond in 48 hours.”

I thought Ronald Koeman’s reaction to Wenger’s tirade against Jon Moss was quite funny. “Only the first three? He didn’t say anything about the fourth goal? That’s strange,” Koeman said. “I like to analyse the game and if you lose 4-0 and you talk about the referee it’s not my way to analyse a football game.”

He has a point, because to be honest most of the Arsenal players were playing at 50% of their usual capability. But we just have to hope that the team gets themselves back on track in the next two days. There is still a long way to go and we are lucky in that the team above us also dropped points, so we cannot judge the season on this one game.

Bring on Bournemouth and let’s forget this game very quickly!

Tags Southampton Wenger

11 Comments

  1. It was typical Arsenal fluffing their lines once again,it was an overall poor team performance and blaming the referee for the result is ridiculous!

    1. Losing to a team 2-0 once in a while is acceptable but losing 4-0 is a humiliation and that should not happen with team like arsenal who are fighting for the title this year. If we keep on missing chances to go top of the league then we are ourselves to blame if we lose the title. I just want arsenal to respond in the next game and go on a good run again.. With injured players coming back in next few weeks we have a great chance to make it happen this year and a good signing would be cherry on the cake !

      1. someone should have asked at the press conference what wenger’s plan is to deal with the physicality? maybe buy a wanyama for cdm and another physical player? its not the first time we’ve heard of the physicality deficit. next season we’ll have the same excuses: 1/3 of squad will be injured, refs will cause us to lose 6 games during season and stoke/southampton and 3 other teams will out-muscle us. so whats the solution?

  2. last time we blamed szc
    i guess this time we are blaming the ref and conveniently ignoring our shortcomings AGAIN.
    Is it just me or did this game feel like a repeat of last year’s game. How can you lose the exact same way twice???!!!! Easy balls over the top from mid were putting their strikers behind our defense….. just like last year -_-
    Demotivating loss

    1. Any team would have Beaten us we were awful. Mertisaker must have had to much turkey, he couldn’t run or jump and only Monreal was the best out of the team as for Campbell well he never was in it. You only have to have 2/3 players not performing and the whole team struggles. I think it’s time for Oxy to start on right. Gabriel in for Mertisaker Chambers in for Flamini, CB

  3. We played Southampton at a bad time, they had only scored once in 5 games. Their manager had publicly criticised them. They were really up for it.
    Goal 1, fluke, goal 2, foul on Kos goal 3, wasn’t a corner. Goal 4 hit on the break.
    Sometimes the luck is against you. Over the season. it levels out.
    Need 3 points at Bournemouth
    Kompany injured
    Leicestershire bubble has burst, city next for them

  4. I remember travelling to Southampton many years ago and we lost by the same score. All 4 goals were scored by some kid making his debut who we had never heard of. His name was Alan Shearer!

  5. I still have this feeling that we are gonna lift this year’s Epl. And Ozil will scoop the Epl best player award. Yea right, you heard me right! WE ARE GONNA TAKE EPL THIS YEAR. It doesn’t matter the speed. Forward is forward. #SlowAndSteady

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