Arsenal go from bad to worse despite complete domination over Southampton

When Arsenal went to Patrick Vieira’s Crystal Palace and lost 3-0, it wasn’t such a big surprise to me as the Eagles are one of the most inform teams in the League, but I fully expected the Gunners to bounce back with an easy win over a totally out-of-form Brighton side. I am still baffled as to how we managed to lose that one, especially as we were playing at the Emirates.

At least Brighton returned the favour yesterday by beating Tottenham before we faced Southampton, and we knew we could be back in the Top Four race with an expected easy win. But yet again we managed to blow our chance…

It was not through lack of trying. We had 75% possession, which is probably a record for a losing team. We had 23 attempts to their 9. We had 6 on target to their 3, but we simply couldn’t put the ball in the net, with Fraser Foster making some world class saves along the way.

As Arteta said after the game: “… I can’t remember a game where Arsenal has played with this team, where they have created and dominated in a game more and better. But the result is what at the end we need to be where we have to be, and if we are not able to do that we aren’t not going to be there – it’s as simple as that. Because you don’t have enough quality to be there, because we have to win football matches and we have to score more goals, and that’s a problem we have at the moment.”

So, that makes three games, zero points, one goal for and six conceded, and now we have Chelsea and Man United coming up in the next week.

Are things just about to get even worse?

Tags southampton v arsenal

52 Comments

  1. We don’t deserve to be in CL with these poor performances. We will humiliate ourselves over there, and MA will never learn from his mistakes .. EVER!

    Why didn’t he start with Saka on the right side like always?
    Or at least play Pepe on the left side with Marti as a CF? or keep him on the bench for Nke?

    This tells me that this manager is only confident in 11 or 12 players and doesn’t trust the rest. What are we supposed to do then? Get him 5-6 players and hope he can make something during the next season?

    Instead, I would get a new manager and give him some money to spend because I can’t see Arsenal improving with this guy anymore.

  2. Our top 4 chances were over as soon as we lost tierney and partley do not have the same quality to come in and do the same job and that has cost us big time! Not even gona watch the Chelsea game we will get well beaten there as well so not gona put myself through more misery watching us crumble even more! Season over some big decisions need to be made in the summer if board stick with Arteta and give him a big transfer kitty and he fails to make top 4 next season then he definitely needs to be sacked no more excuses after that!

    1. What if there’s a clause on Arteta’s contract that protects him from being sacked? For example, a 20+ M penalty for firing him as Conte had at Chelsea

      Arteta had a good stable job at Man City, so he could demand such things

      1. MA is out of contract soon. He is not on high wages like Pep, Conte etc. Sacking him will be cheaper than ie. Emerys.

        1. Conte also had one year left, yet Chelsea had to pay 20+ M to sack his staffs and him. I heard Mourinho got similar amount of money from Spuds, despite having one year left on his contract

      2. I dont think he would have any of that in his contract and if he is not upto it, why should any clause matter? Does that mean we let a clause take us down? NO!!!!!

        1. Kroenke might let him to finish his contract, because his options are limited. I think the available top managers are Zidane and Enrique, but I don’t fancy them

          1. You forgot Dyche, Pochetino, Potter, Vierra, Benitez and many others to choose from. There are many many managers around Europe who would come, offered the right package. Its just about choice.

            1. Pochettino, Potter and Vieira might good choices, but Dyche will get Burnley relegated and Benitez would likely do it to Everton if he stayed there

              1. And thats matter of fact is it. It doesn’t work like that. It what the managers are capable of not what has just gone wrong. It goes Pete Tong for the best now and then but its what they can do with the right support.

          2. Gai if you ask me, I think Emery has an unfinished work with Arsenal except if he left bitterly.

  3. It seems Areta’s tactics are solely dependent on Partey
    Partey gone and Arteta looks out of ideas
    Now I think our top 4 is gone because we still have to play with Chelsea, Utd and Westham
    Even if win all these tough fixtures and if Tottenham also win there fixtures then our standing match is against Spurs and we are 3 points behind…
    So even when if we win our match at Tottenham still our GD pretty worse than Spurs
    So even though all these unrealistic equations completes, still we will finish outside top 4…
    This was our best chance to finish in top 4 because we are playing just one game in a week…
    Arteta needs to go..
    He is overrated mediocre chequebook manager who even after spending so much cannot achieve top 4 with just 1 match per week

  4. Well Arteta does love an 8th place finish and ironically that was his squad number and we are getting closer to that 8th place especially if West Ham win today.. can’t see us scoring against Chelsea let alone winning, then we play a very average united team just like ourselves but they score more goals and I would predict a narrow defeat 1-2 then onto a pumped up West Ham team who may or may not be distracted by a Europa league semi final… On paper it does not look good but we’ll see what happens. Happy Easter folks 🐰

  5. We’d likely lose at Stamford Bridge, because Mendy is tall commanding GK like Forster and we don’t have good headers in our front line

    This means our crosses would likely be wasteful again and Chelsea just need to score once before sitting back for counter-attacks. If I were Arteta, I’d train Xhaka and Odegaard to make through balls from the deep midfield area

    1. Time to reestablush radio contact with planet .. retraining a 30 year old football mediocrity with zero forward vision to help carry us to 4th place … seriously !!

      1. He seems to love Arsenal since he’s been working at the club for years, so I don’t think he’d like to return to Manchester

  6. I thought we were pretty unlucky yesterday and could have taken something from it if it wasn’t for Forster having one of his worldy games.

    The positive is that MA changed to 3 at the back for the second half, hopefully we stay like this for the rest of the season as without KT and TP his goto formation isn’t working and it appears that the opposition has worked us out by doubling up on Saka and Martinelli. I thought Eddie played ok but again no service to him so wasn’t expecting much. I always think of the Shitty, Shaun Goater song when I watch Arsenal under MA “Feed the goat and he will score” unfortunately our strikers are on rations.

    But all in all a much better performance than Crystal Palace and Brighton.

    I’ve already given up on this season as I just don’t know what Arsenal team is gonna show up on the day. I still have considerable doubts about MA and after reflection, the games we have have won was not because of a tactical masterclass but individual brilliance hence the one or two goals scoreline.

    So can we get a result against Chel$ki, Manure and the Happy Hammers. Very unlikely on this form, but it would not surprise me if we did as I can say you just can’t expect the expected with this team.

  7. Bad is being in 9th place. This week we remain in 5th with a game in hand. In the summer no one on planet earth predicted Arsenal would get top 4. No one at all. After the 0-3 start 99% of Arsenal “supporters” gave up threw in the towel wrote the season off. I pedicted 5th/6th. So Arsenal remains on track for European football which would be a great result for the first season of the new process. Arteta in.

    1. FF you say that same statement about 4 or 5 times everyday. We get it your the only one who predicted 5/6th and no one on planet earth thought we could make top 4 you can read minds all across the world and predict future events 👍

        1. Because when you spend 250 million you expect top 4 not a Europa league place, west Ham and Leicester didn’t need to splash quarter of a billion to get the luxury of playing in Europe’s second tier competition but under the genius of Arteta that’s progress. We got rid of 2 managers who couldn’t make top 4 but now top 6 is a successful season lol

        2. because top 4 should be the minimum target considering we are Arsenal.

          Top 4 was not good enough for Wenger for the fans and 6th was not good enough for the yanks. So, I ask thr question why is 8th (where we heading) and maybe 6th ok for fans and yanks now?

          double standards by you lot FF.

          A young team does not make finishing 6th any better nor does the so called process (which i dont see).

        3. you mean to say you didnt expect it by xmas watching the unexpectedly poor quality of both man utd and spurs … we will not get an easier opportunity to gain 4th slot in a long time to come … the guy has blown it and the fact that you cant recognise that and instead will after 3 years of his mismanagement and hundreds of millions in spending be happy with a position that in all likelihood falls short of what emery achieved, with even more woeful football than he delivered, is pretty staggering for a so called supporter

        4. Arteta got us into a position where it seemed very possible, if not likely. All we had to do was win our winnable games and we’d probably have made fourth. With the end in sight, it’s not surprising people would be frustrated by our throwing away this opportunity – now we have to win some very tough games to have a chance, and in all likelihood we’re going to continue on our losing streak.
          It’s not that we were destined to finish 6th, it was in our hands to finish 4th and we will fail now due to our (arteta’s) bad decisions.

          1. Correct, beat Palace, Brighton and Southampton and we would not have had to beat Man u, Chelsea and Spurs. But we struggled against the might mid tablers.

          2. Who ever made the final decision to not sign a CF & AM in January is who will be to blame for us not reaching 4th this season as we will not get a better chance than what we have had. It was a gamble that just hasn’t worked out

  8. Did you just say bad to worse!? It’s been worse to worse to worse to worst to worstest!, and that’s for even lucking a correct word to describe the situation

  9. So we have complete domination over Southampton (who shipped 6 last time) 75% possession and not for the first time we cant score. And some still think its the squad and nothing at all to do with Artetaball. AMAZING!!!!!!

    1. If we dominate possession and make chances but can’t score, that’s down to finishing, but if it’s because we don’t make chances, then it’s easier to be critical of the system as a whole. Yesterday was in between the two, we had the chances to win, but it’s not like we had so many that Southampton had to be incredibly lucky to hold on.
      Generally speaking, though, I do think we’ve been making enough chances consistently enough that I’m convinced that the playing style is not the key issue – form of the players in front of goal, and squad depth are clear issues, though. That doesn’t absolve arteta of responsibility at all – he’s responsible for all of that – but I don’t think his playing style is the big issue here

      1. A clear issue with many of the critics is that they lash out when we have bad results. There is no balance and much of the criticism is not really constructive.
        If you dominate possession and chances the squad strength and player quality should quite reasonably be under consideration. Why this is now a cause for bemusement is difficult to understand.
        The simplistic answer for many is to change the manager. Many for example have been suggesting we should have gone for Conte. Yet his spurs yesterday, Kane and all, played at home and did not have a single shot on target. Spurs were completely dominated not that long ago by the same Southampton that so many are now suggesting that it is unthinkable we should lose to. Given that it was Conte much of the criticism by pundits was muted even though the team was dreadful despite what turned out to be a close result.
        Fans need to realise that many of the mid-table teams are pretty strong in their own right and can pull off impressive performances and results.

      2. It’s his playing style because we exactly like Arteta used to play at a snail pace and you can’t break up teams with that pace period!!

  10. Was happy with the results and was even impressed with how the coach was getting those wins with such a thin squad.

    But the thin squad is his own doing so there is no way in the world for any sane person to excuse him for that.

    I was looking forward to our return to the CL next season. Can’t believe how quickly things have changed.

  11. Arsenal has now lost 11 games with season yet to finish.Terry Neil lost 11 games and was shown the door.
    On current form Arsenal will score less and concede more goals than last season. What does the manager or the Board have to say in explanation regarding “the process”, success or failure?

    1. This is true I have been thinking the same. i. e. no progress and no process.

      Patrick Lencioni said there are three virtues to look out for in people.

      humble
      hungry
      smart

      the best has all 3 qualities and thr most dangerous only has 2 (hungry and smart). This is the person that can fool you and itnis difficult to identify, you do not want to hire this person. This makes me think of Arteta.

      Arteta is dangerous to Arsenal

  12. Amid all the hysterical rants onJA and the very few balanced posts too, I would add this truism: all the teams that have the most success have the best quality squads and that in the most depth too.

    Our squad has a harmfullylow limit onreal quality, MAINLY BECAUSE our owner has no real interest in our club or team. To him, we are no more than an asset to borrow against and a plaything for his son Josh, who also does not care enough and not remotely as WE ALL on JA care.

    Now I wrote “MAINLY” ,because that is not the whole reason , though it is the largest factor in our lack of greater owner ambition .

    In life, if you have no real ambition , you do not generally achieve much success. That is true in business, in all walks of life and in sport of all kinds.

    City and Liverpool have great success because they have huge ambition and that huge ambition means they hired the VERY BEST managers available and properly supported them, both with money and all other kinds of hands on support.

    Our club is run by different owner types and thus we failed to sack the underperforming Wenger, many years before we finally did, and Kroenke therefore failed to act decisively to hire Pep or Jurgen , both of whom would have come, had we asked them before it was far too late.

    We settled, after delaying Wengers sacking – technically a resignation for Ken 1945 sake,” resign or else be sacked” is to most unbiased minds, a sacking – for a lesser manager in MA .

    This is not to say that some of us ,myself included, do not rate MA as a manager. I for just one supporter very much DO rate him. BUT he is plainly not a world best like Pep and Jurgen. Those among us who dislike hysteria and prefer balanced thoughts can easily see that MA has made many mistakes in team selection and on who he left out and I FREELY ADMIT THAT FACT.
    However, I praise his acting to rid our club of those who were not giving their all for the cause and of those whose attitude stank. Had our squad not been so short of real quality then those necessary and praiseworthy actions would have been widely seen as sensible.

    But IMO, NOTto replace Auba in January, was a massive and costly mistake by MA. We could and SHOULD have brought in someone like Toney -or that sort of obtainable level of striker – who we could have landed, had we chosen to act.
    To my balanced and fair mind that huge error has cost us hugely and it is now clear, at least to me, that we cannot score enough goals to make CL.
    I agree with fairfans oft expressed view that few of us back in August expected a top- four place . Reggie always has done as we know but he is an outlier in that, if truth be spoken, whatever some NOW falsely clain they expected back THEN.
    Until out good run inFeb I also neve rexpected ghighee rtthan 5th or 6th and that is now what I expect again I thibnk all along that was arealstic expectation but like most fans I TOO AM GUILTY OF LETTING MY HOPES GET THE BETTER OF MY RATIONAL THINKING AND FOOISHLY EXPRESSED THEM, when recently thinking we would PROBABLY make top four.

    Unlike some I CAN AND DO admit when i am wrong In my private life I alway sadmit to my mistakes as thet way you get self respect and respect from others It is folish andimature for anyof us to pretend we do not make mistakes AND irt is likewise to expect no manager to eve rmake mistakes But what compounds that foolishnes is when unrealistic andunfair burdens are placed upon aless than world class manager to achieve something without giving him adeqate chance to prove himself.

    MANY WILL SAY HE HAS HAD MORE THAN ENOUGH TIME.

    I say otherwise. And will continue to act as a real supporter does who loves our club; honourably and while accepting that none of us are perfect, nor should we be unfairly expected to be.

    Just my view on how I wish to act and wish to live my life, through decent principles, while admitting to my own mistakes.It is what mature folk naturally wish to do.

    1. Jon, who is the insider at the club giving you this information?

      Quote : “hire Pep or Jurgen, both of whom would have come, if we had asked them before it was far too late”….especially after the way you describe how the owner and his son see the club?

      Why do you think Toney was available in January? Not according to his club he wasn’t.

      What gives you the idea that Pep or Jurgen would agree to follow the restraints that AW found himself under…. the conditions that you lay out as an excuse for MA, but not AW?

      You have laid out the framework the kronkie’s have for the club, as a reason for MA failing to succeed and then promptly proceed to claim that either Pep or Jurgen would have come to The Arsenal, if Wenger had left before he did!!!
      What a ridiculous statement to make – so Pep / Jurgen would have agreed to manage a club, where the owner has no interest in it and sees it only as a cash asset and plaything for his son?!?!
      That’s your “balanced” way of thinking? Love to hear what Pep and Jurgen would say about that!

      Let’s just say, though, that Pep or Jurgen had become the manager, what restraints do you think kronkie would have lifted, that he hadn’t for AW or UE??

      As for AW, who stayed loyal to our club, despite the kronkies, you have your opinion and I have mine.

  13. Players themselves have recently commented on top 4 being the goal, so why do some fans settle for less?

    I wonder how many that called for Wenger and Emery sacking are defending Arteta now delivering less?

  14. Arteta is incharge and he must account for these loses.
    He trimed the club until is has no reserves. He is openly underminig M Elneny and N Pepe because they played in an underrated AFCON competition, which the EPL clubs openly attempted to stop the African players to go and play.

  15. it is laughable to assume John that because we did not expect to be in the top 4 we should be ok with a manager that once he got close he choked like Emery.
    we spent more mney than any other club last summer therefore the claims the owners are not puting out is baseless. as you pointed out MA made a huge error to not replace Auba and a bigger one to let him go because of “disciplinary ” issues. that is a crock of shit because MA has repeatedly demonstrated his sub par player management skills. I will not name the examples as you porbable know them better than anyone
    Blowing the last 3 easist of the fixtures we had is
    insane fot a club the calibre of Arsenal.
    I stayed of this site because I do not support MA but i love Arsenal and things for a while went ok until his ego took care of that. He is not Pep and more likely will never be.
    It is his decision making that is bottling it for us now and pray a miracle happens because without European football I doubt many top class player are flocking to Arsenal with MA at the helm. His reputation between players is not trending up.
    BTW here is 2 words than can get us back to the top level: DIEGO SIMEONE

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