Why Saints win is GREAT news for Arsenal

After Arsenal beat Stoke City with ease and put ourselves level on points with Southampton and just one behind Man United, the usual rreaction would be to hope that the two teams above the Gunners played out a draw at Old Trafford yesterday. But as we know, the Saints inflicted a rare home defeat on Louis van Gaal and his team.

And although that puts Ronald Koeman and his players out of our reach for now, I think it was the perfect result for Arsenal. Having United in our sights is much more important than the Saints because, with respect, they are almost certainly going to falter as the season progresses and you would expect Arsenal to overhaul them in the coming months.

United losing is just what we needed and no more than they deserve as they have been riding their luck all season. Now the pressure will be on United when they travel to QPR next on Saturday and I can see them dropping more points to a QPR side who are very strong on their own turf.

Even if they win and we lose at Man City, they will not be far ahead and the serious business of the race for the Champions League places will be on and the Gunners will be looking for third.

Will we make it?

Tags Man United

37 Comments

  1. Everyone expected southampton to fall down by now. But now it has been 21 matches and dey stand at 3rd , 2 points above 4th placed united and 3 points above us. With no champions league football dey hav a squad which might prove just enough to finish in top 4. We cant take either southampton or united lightly.
    and to those who thought injury probs are behind us, well, debuchy…

    1. forget the so called spurs, man U is always my no. 1 rival (enemy) i started supporting arsenal when there was only arsenal and man u, fighting for the league. beside all the people around me here are either gunners or man u fans. so i always hate man u ahead of any other team.

      1. @muda……that’s what i always say…..”forget the spuds” but people won’t understand what i mean by that… Comparing arsenal with em (Local rivalries aside…..bullsh*t) only means we are on the same level with em……. We are much more!. Aim at destroying proud a*s teams out ere……our hate for all the big teams will only make us DYNAMOs

  2. Yes I agree, that is the best result for us. United were really lucky in their run of last 10 match unbeaten run. Third place is our target this season. And that result opened the 3rd and 4rth position.
    Now if we don’t sign a Defender in this window, then I dont think we can achieve top 4, as Southamptopn is really really good team. Your comment that they certainly going to falter as the season progresses is not correct,. They had a bad patch of 4 match loosing streak , that is why they are in sight, else they would have secured 3rd place by now, they had a perfect christmas , they won against us and everton as southampton, won at old trafford, drawn with chelsea and may .. Now way we can under estimate them

  3. Lets just focus on winning our own games… If other teams lose, then that’s just a bonus!

    I am so anxious for this City game… Got some good momentum behind us now!

    1. our greatest vulnerability this season (the cdm layer w flam & arteta) has been greatly reduced by the good (so far) play of le coq. i also liked roz in that layer, plus with roziscky’s directness, the lineup today can get a result versus manc *IF* we do not concede in 1st 30min. [manc defence is not that great]. ozil and walcott do not look ready yet to displace caz/ox so our startup on Sat should be the same as it was today (but bellerin in for debuchy) [gibbs for monreal too if gibbs will be fit]. i’m most worried about BFG. he is now the weakest point in this team.

      1. @almost, Monreal did nothing wrong to lose his place. by the way gibbo is kind of overrated in my eyes. not any better than monreal both in defense and attack

        1. Don’t agree that Gibbs is overrated but Monreal is one of our most improved players this year. After a shaky start he was growing into the CB role when required to play there and his overall play at LB has improved massively this last three months. I used to shudder when I saw him on the team sheet, I veiwed him as a liability but now he’s showing composure and class. Less wasteful also. Good squad player and shows a good attitude when he’s not selected.

      2. He is doing ok but i think its more of an over all improvement in the teams perfomance. Cazorla looks awesome and is defending reasonably well, similar with Rosicky… Sanchez along with those two have a great understanding when showing that great minds do indeed think alike.

        The pundit pointed out yesterday that it was refreshing to see Arsenal not deploy excessive numbers forward looking for a fourth then fifth as its been our Achilles.

        Also i agree with the many… Sou look good for their place so unless they get Arsenalesc luck with injuries well then i wouldnt expect them to falter. They have a very strong defensive mentality while also holding some very talented individuals.

  4. No disrespect but southampton will not make top 4, nowadays football is like a politics, refrees will soon be against them, like it happens to everton last time!

  5. I disagree. I think Saints win was
    good for Saints. It means for now
    we are fighting Utd for 4th.
    United have a lot of talent and may strengthen in the window.
    We have to go to Old T. 2nd last game.
    Arsenal has the hardest game next round
    and may drop one place to 6th but the following week
    have a softer home game so should go back into 5th.
    And this is how it will go to the season end 4 teams
    neck and neck for 2 places. My prediction.
    Utd 3rd Arsenal 4th Sotn 5th Spurs 6th.
    But still 17 games to go so who really knows.

    But if Arsenal knock of City …

    1. I would love Utd to fall out of the top 4 and Southampton to stay. And of course Arsenal to make the top 4.

    2. Difficult games in next couple of weeks. I am not convinced we can get 3 or 4 points from our next 2 games but think these two games will define/shape our season. Get these 2 out of the way and we would have then played all the traditional top 6 or 7 teams away (L’Pool, Man C, Chelsea, Everton, TH etc), plus teams in and around us like Soton, West Ham, Swansea. Remaining away games are against Palace, QPR, N’castle, Burnley, Hull and Man U. Home form will probably decide it for us.

      1. Cabaye said the very same thing… then psg offered mega bucks as Cabaye showed his colours in the end. Of course Sissoko would prefer to play for the Arsenal over newcastle… but my guess is that say real barca manc che came calling Sissoko would very quickly change his tune.

        Hes not even at newc one season and he wants a move… they took a risk and gave him the stage to showcase himself… in return he turns turncoat… i dont want Sissoko anywhere near our classy club so he can bugger off back to France and help Cabaye count his money.

  6. I can’t see us beating City it will be a typical away day for us.
    We always beat Stoke at home and we did play really well but that won’t count for anything against City,

  7. Any particular reason, why you think we can’t beat City. If its because our defense, I would agree but partially. Le Coq doing a goo job for Dm, Mertz and Koscielny are anticipating each other. Monreal, not that good, but still, if he doesn’t makes more mistakes, I am comfortable with him. Main problem is RB now. Bellerin is good going forward but not that much impressive with his defensive performances. Chambers is good defensively more than offensively for sure.

    We have to defend and attack as a unit.

    Also to mention, it is a competition between two tiki-taka teams.
    Whoever does tiki-taka best, wins the match.

    1. Monreal is way better than Gibbs this season. Whether you like it or not … He played also CB. Much more versatile than Gibbs.

  8. If Arsenal are serious about doing well this season they must win the City and Spurs game.

    I think we should keep the same line up for both games.

  9. I would’ve preferred a draw (like I always do when its 2 teams above us on the log), it would’ve meant bot dropping 2 points…but hell, a saints win is ok..cos Man u wer building sum confidence, and was nyc to see LVG F@#kt up face, carrin his precious diary.after the loss…

  10. saints win isn’t great new for arsenal…….why? Manure were few points ahead of em at 3rd…..now they are Leaped frogged into 3rd…..we still remain 5th and considering our next game is not what we call vert very winable(no negativity intended)…….this is no good news

  11. Southampton must be one of the most difficult teams to beat in the league. They have one of the best midfields in the league with the tireless Wanyama and Schneiderlin. I believe if they had Diego Costa in attack and not Pelle, they’ll be challenging for the title. He has been rather wasteful these days.

  12. A draw would clearly have been a better result!

    I don’t get this idea that Southampton will fail, and we are guaranteed to finish above. I really don’t. Why? Because they will get nose bleeds or because Arsenal always get 4th spot (like it’s our divine right or something) because we are a ‘bigger’ club.

    Financially we are but as we know unless it’s put to use for the benefit of the team and conversely its ability to function then this stays means nothing.

    Your only as good as your last game. Lets

    1. Kick on and cultivate a winning mentality where we hate to loose and will do anything to try to ensure we don’t.

  13. Don’t agree at all! Southampton are more a threat to the UCL spot than UTD. UTD have the same points count they had last year, also they have been one of the most error prone teams, yet conceded the fewest goals from errors. So while they were making errors they were not being punished. That was not going to last forever. Southampton have consistency on their side.

    Personally I think we have to finish above United, but I still don’t think that will guarantee 3rd.

  14. The thing that scares me is that if we beat Monaco in Europe (wich I believe we will), Soton and Utd will have minumum 4 less games then us (not counting FA cup).

  15. Mu wil always be a threat with their attacking players however they are an easier team to beat by any random team due to their defensive disarray. I fear saints more as they have the best defensive record in rhe pl, (10 clean sheets in 21) and are hard to break down so they rarely drop points. The additions of pele, tadic, bertrand and alderwield have only made them stronger. Wonder what the likes of lambert, lovren and lallana are thinking now! Everyone’s talking about them faltering soon but we are over half way and having just beaten us and mu they continue to grow in confidence and strength.

  16. WE WILL NOT MAKE TOP FOUR PEOPLE, STOP DREAMING !
    We have the weakest defense among the elite 8 and this is due to our injuries and Wenger unwilling to change and bring new players. United will most likely finish 3rd because most of their players are back from injury. and i see Southamton getting the wenger trophy just because they deserve it. look all that they have achieved despite losing key players and a coach. Aside from Alexis Sanchez this season is a total failure, dont let a home win against stoke city fool you. come on now it is stoke city we are talking abt, not even a big top 5 team. im just sad for alexis because he deserves better but i dont mind missing the champions league if it means that we will challenge for the title. sorry but this is the sad truth.

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