A lucky win does not mean Arsenal can challenge for the title by DN
I certainly agree with Arsene Wenger when he said that he was relieved when we got a last minute penalty to finally grab the three points against Southampton, who are still yet to win a game this season, but there is no possible way that Le Prof can say that we dominated the Saints in my opinion.
As far as I am an concerned we were very lucky to win the game in the end, but of course Wenger likes to look at the positive side of things and hopes that this win will help us to be more confident for the rest of the season. Wenger said after the game: “Look, we had a little bit of a slow start and after 20 minutes we were 1-0 down, so we came back well into the game and we had a good response. In the second half I felt we dominated well again and created many dangerous situations but couldn’t score.
“Because we threw everything forward we were always a little bit under threat on the counter-attack of Southampton and in the end we got the penalty, so it’s a relief. When you lose your first home game, you cannot afford to drop points in the second home game because it creates a little bit of anxiety at home and that’s not what we really want.
“It is a win after Watford, that is two wins together. If we can put a few wins together, of course that will help us to be more confident and to get to a very fluent level like we want to play.”
Let’s be honest, after our easy win against Watford we expected a much more comfortable game today, especially as most of our starters hadn’t even been on international duty. Our new players were not that impressive, and our regular players were not much better.
The only positive I can find is that we finally beat Southampton after not scoring against them for the last three meetings, but if we are totally honest, it was not impressive and we don’t look like title challengers, despite Wenger thinking we now have a “complete squad”.
Seriously can anyone else see any positives after that performance?
Darren
No we are not going to win the title. We are not at the level of both Manchester clubs. Liverpool on their day play a better brand of football. Then there is chelsea who have yet to lose. I don’t mind these lucky wins but today we did not deserve it. Imagine if we were at the receiving end of such a dodgy penalty decision , who arsenal fc fraternity would have moaned for weeks. We do not look confident on the ball.
If anything I am worried where this team is heading towards.
Liverpool on their day play a ”better brand of football”? Any team on their day can play great football lol. Cech being very unlucky is the only reason why Southampton scored today plus Giroud was held and fouled in the box and i’ve seen penalties being given for way less so far. Some fans man, we win you complain, we lose you complain
IMO Wenger wasted time in the transfer window and as usual makes last minute appointments.
Yes we got Xanka early but he`s a mid fielder not a centre back or a striker the two positions we needed to fill quickly and mould into the side pre season. We needed an Ibramovich who hits the ground running, we a have a dressing room full of `also ran` strikers. Arsenal don`t look like champions material to me you need a good start to the season and once again it`
“wasn`t to be”……sorry computer clitch!
Really Darren? We had an average first half full of mistakes for sure but we picked up quite well after the equalizer. Mustafi looked good and commanding and Perez barely got enough service because Ozil was having an off day and our wingers couldn’t find him with their crosses.
Apart from the first 15 or so minutes we dominated the game especially in the second half.
-Cech was unlucky on that first goal after a great save from the original free kick
-Defense and midfield were overall solid.
-The negatives were the sloppy passes, Ozil being off at times, Ox not reaching his potential and Perez being isolated because we weren’t given enough space to play through the middle.
We certainly need to protect perez at all costs. Hos first game and he’s playing lone striker with an out of sort ozil and ox and theo who have little creative vision. Of sanchez, Ramsey, Wilshire or cazorla where high up the pitch alongside ozil and perez I think we would have seen a very different player. Also our style of play will need to change and lastly is there currently a language barrier? Is perez is good he’ll feed off sanchez and ozil.
Against psg I’d like giroud to start and perez come on later as psg maybe tire.
me too..he should start…i already miss him
Wolcott ox what do you expect I have been saying this for a long time you can go to jamaica Africa on find a lot of players like Wolcott on the ox speed with nothing else can they play for arsenal. most goals scoring chance in soccer are created from wing play just think about it maybe if Lucas. was playing for Southampton he would have a goal today
You think highly of Jamaica don’t you. Africa’s a continent, we know many great players come from there, it’s a bloody continent. Jamaica on the other hand created one note worthy player, actually they didn’t create him but he had roots (John Barnes of course). Jamaica cant play football dude!
The last 3 articles were garbage wow stick to FIFA and keep your opinions to yourselves
Iwobi must start. he actually gets involved in the play unlike Walcott, and unlike Ox he can shoot and doesnt lose the ball all the time. Iwobi isn’t a one trick pony like our other winger options. So tired of this English bias that has gotten us nowhere.
When Arsene Wenger says Arsenal dominated, he’s right. Arsenal controlled the ball for large stretches of the game and were the team pushing to win. Like so many teams Southampton were, for 80-90% of the game, content to let Arsenal attach and play on the counter. It is an effective strategy against Arsenal and teams use it because they are not good enough to play against Arsenal in an open game.
So much is made of Shane long’s misses and the ‘foul’ on him that did not get called prior to the penalty. Look at that play again. He was clipped by Monreal, but he had already started to play on, then threw himself to the ground looking for the call. It was the kind of call twats like Shane Long usually get, but today he got caught out and it was a good non call because it was a dive.
The same people saying Long deserved a free kick for his dive said the penalty for Giroud was ‘dodgy’. Fonte had a handful of his jersey pulling so hard the hand had the chest of Giroud’s shirt pulled down to below his waist. He hauled Giroud down then, as he was trying to get up, tripped him. Giroud is fouled like that all the time and does not get the call, so anyone who is used to watching Arsenal doesn’t expect him to get a penalty there, but it was a foul and it was a penalty. There was nothing ‘dodgy’ about it.
As far as chances go, today was a day when the statistics weren’t good indicators. Arsenal had three really good chances go just awry. Monreal missed an open goal. Giroud’s header was just wide. And Alexs fired just high on a powerful strike. Those were all legitimate chances, each as good or better than anything Southampton had.
Were Arsenal lucky to win? Yes they were. So were Manchester City. Mourinho is such a whining twat, but he was right. Man U were denied two penalties they deserved, one for the hand ball and one for Bravo’s reckless challenge. Similarly, Boro deserved a hand ball call on Scott Dann in their game v. Crystal Palace and didn’t get it. So Palace were lucky to win as well.
Why is it though, Pep Guardiola’s Man City ‘deserved’ to win while Arsenal were ‘lucky’ to win? The truth is, the difference between winning and losing is often a split hair in the Premier League.
Also, every single pundit claiming the Premier League was changed forever by Leicester’s title last season, especially those picking the Foxes to be a top six team, please step forward and admit you were wrong. The vaunted Huth and Morgan were shredded, Vardy and Okazaki were non factors, and Drinkwater didn’t much look like he belonged in the England side. Welcome back to reality Leicester City.
Alexis, and Giroud had half chances today, nothing was really clear. Long had 2 clear that he missed, Monreal one for us. I don’t see why it matters anyways, overall we were okay. We moved the ball way too slowly, Ozil was off the pace, and our 3 attacking subs were the ones who threw the momentum our way. You make your own luck, and we never stopped attacking which is how we got the penalty. 2-1 is harsh on Southampton, but thats the way it goes sometimes. There’s nothing wrong with getting some good fortune time to time. God knows our rivals have way more times than us. But to suggest we were amazing today is just not reality. City aren’t getting the same headlines because they didnt score off a last minute goal, and were so very clearly better than United who only chances came through Bravo mistakes.
If we had scored our chances, could have easily been 5 goals. We were called unconvincing in many site, but from our movement, chances, ability on the ball we are convincing it was just the finishing that let us down..
Perez and Mustafi shows they still lack the confidence, the EPL is definitely another football game compares to La Liga!
for just about every EPL game someone can say the score would’ve been different if we “took our chances.” That’s why finishing is a thing.
did any one notice the relief shown by our bench at the end of the game. both players doctors nd coaches pumped their cheeks in relief. like phew
I was at the match, and although our performance was pretty dreary between when Kos scored and Alexis came on, I have to say I was pretty disappointed with the level of cynicism shown by both the Southampton fans and players, who I always considered to be fair previously. Both at the ground and on TV replays, I saw no contact between Monreal and Redmond, for which Redmond went down clutching his face for some reason, when if there was any contact, which there wasn’t, that was the least likely part of his anatomy to receive it, but which resulted in their goal, and Jason Long also went down clutching his face, after slight contact on his heel, which I didn’t even see in the stadium, but his reaction was over exaggerated, and clearly inconsistent with any pain that he might of incurred, only for him to quickly recover and go running back up the field, when no notice was being paid to him, and a corner was being awarded in Arsenal’s favour. Also flares were let off in the Southampton fans enclosure, which I hope the perpetrators get a life long ban for, and I thought it was pretty pathetic of them to start booing Cech, whenever he had the ball, because Arsenal fans were booing Forster for consistent time wasting for which he had a yellow card. So glad that cheating and aspects of the game that none of us like to see didn’t get rewarded, but concerned at our ability in the final third, and passing inaccuracy, which was coming mainly from the new players, but also people like Ozil, who we should expect better from.
That win felt great in the end. Every season we say where is the luck or why can’t we win scrappy games. I’m very happy with these points. I know eventually we’ll click and start entertaining, but until then, so long as we get the points …sign me up.