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?