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Arsenal v Southampton review – Alexis stunner not enough!!

JustArsenal’s Mr Admin was generously invited by Huawei to this game at the Emirates, so we were wined and dined before the action started. But we were given excellent seats to watch the action from the start.


Taken with my new Huawei Arsenal Smartphone before the game!

It was always going to be a tough night for Arsenal against a strong Saints line-up that was not much changed. Arsene Wenger made plenty, as expected, but it still looked a pretty strong midfield and attack, with the likes of Wilshere, Rosicky, Podolski and Alexis in there.

And it was all going so well after the Chilean international smashed a pearl of a free kick past Forster in the 14th minute. Southampton were very good though and gave the makeshift defence a lot to do all game. The way they got back into it was a shame though, a daft and needless tackle from Rosicky just inside the area.

And the rest of a tough, end-to-end and fairly even game was decided by a wonder strike from Clyne about five minutes before halftime. I wondered if there was a keeper error from David Ospina in there but the pace and swerve on the ball was ridiculous so I will give the dubutant the benefit of the doubt. He was impressive and there were some good performances from the fringe players.

The problem was that we couldn’t get that second goal despite having a lot of the ball and creating opportunities. They gave us a really tough night and unfortunately the unfamiliar Arsenal team were not quite up to it. What did you guys think?

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Tags Alexis ospina Rosicky

141 Comments

  1. Couldn’t care less about the Mickey Mouse cup. No big club do (except Liverpool lol). You could see from the line ups how much it meant for Southampton to win it. Liverpool is struggling with Middlesbrough at home at the moment. And by the way I am not AKB at all, hence why I’m defending the team.

    As expected we fielded a complete B team which looked solid offensively, on paper. However, it was the young, inexperienced defense who were actually BETTER than our offense filled with national players. That was my concern, not the result itself. Hayden and Bellerin looked extremely solid!

    Rosicky can shut his trap in public about him playing more often – his performance was shocking and he would belong to Arsenal U18’s with that kind of play. What the hell was that penalty? Idiotic thing to do.

    Ospina should’ve done better in both goals which were fired in the middle. Penalty was predictable as you could see from Tadic’s finish and although a great shot, Clyne’s shot was in the middle of the goal. However he also did 2 good saves as well.

    Campbell has no business in the starting XI with that display but God, Diaby was immense! Literally his first touch got Sanchez through with the keeper! I really pray he stays fit.

    Oh and that Sane dude reminds me of Gervinho without the forehead. : D Dribbles, dribbles and if hasn’t lost the ball yet, fails to deliver. Made me giggle.

    1. ronald koeman manager of the month- quite possibly 🙂

      well done southampton- should have got scneiderlin when we had the chance!

    3. @juhislihis
      Spot on. The make shift back 4 performed damn good. AW should have subbed Podolski and Jack with Akpom and Carzola at the half.
      Otherwise a decent enough match from the young gunz.

    4. My sentiments exactly!
      HOWEVER, I disagree with you on the Joel Campbell bit. Though he looked a player who isn’t in sync with the team (normal of course), HE WAS NOT shocking. On the contrary, I saw a player that was willing to work for the team to win balls. At times he made runs that nobody from midfield picked. May be he should try those shoots from outside the box that we know he can do very well.
      Terrific game from ALEXIS SANCHEZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

      1. @Uamanov
        Alexis is on another f**kn planet in comparison to the rest of our guys. Ox also. Loved the way he hooked the ball out of the air on his foot and went from 0-60 in 0000000.1 f**kn secs. Deadly…

    6. Rosicky made a mistake that can happend to anyone. You sound like you never played football when you criticize his performance like that.

      And keep in mind he has not been given game time latley. This was mostly a young team who has not played together that much and that was easy to see today.

      Yeah I like Rosicky!

      1. I like Rosicky too but the penalty was in excusable for a player with his experience. Rosicky was poor the whole game (Wilshere was almost as bad). I willing to chalk it up to being rusty from no game time.

      2. I like Rosicky too but the penalty was inexcusable for a player of his experience. I will chalk up his bad game to being rusty from lack of playing time. I’m not sure what Wilshere’s excuse is, he played poorly too.

    7. What are u yapping about? Rosicky played well, though not his best, and I won’t compare this performance of his to the ones put in by Santi, Wilshere and Ozil in the games before the one against Aston Villa

  2. Everyone will freak out, but who really cares about the Capital One Cup. Southamptons starters beat a team of 80% reserves. It’s not like we lost to MK dons or something

    1. The fact its only the Capital one cup doesnt matter. Poor performances is the most worrying thing. IT SHOULDNT BE HAPPENING THIS OFTEN!!!

      1. It does matter. It’s the Capital One cup, which no one cares about. So you use these games to start reserves. For a team like Southampton, it’s a chance to actually win silverware so they come out blazing. We were unlucky to draw them this early. Oh, well…….. And poor performances by…….. 2 starters? And they played well.

        Stop crying and acting like you even care about this dumbass cup and get ready to stomp Spuds this weekend

        1. Your obviously an idiot then. So you expect us to play terrible today but expect us to “stomp” spurs at the weekend? You do realise good performances create momentum thus making us play better and better. Sloppy performances (not for the first or seconds this this season) does no good whatsoever

              1. do you realized we just thumped Villa, who is above Spurs on the table, position 3 vs 9, and how will poldi factor in against Spurs?

          2. Probably only 3 of the players who played today even have a shot of starting against spurs. You’re overreacting. Nobody cares about this cup. Only reason us Arsenal fans gave a crap in the past is because we wanted to win ANY trophy to end our trophy drought.

                1. Dude ease up on the fast food! We ain’t going to win the league just because you lived off pizza and kebab!!!!!

        2. At least we’re not in Liverpool’s position of playing 120 mins midweek before the Merseyside derby on Saturday. Plus they’ve put quite a few first-choice players out as well. Be funny if Spurs make that mistake tomorrow as well..

      2. You’d have a point if it weren’t for the fact that only one, maybe two of the players that actually played for us today were first choice players. Southampton put out a slightly weakened first team. I don’t like seeing us lose, but really I’m not that bothered at all, all it really means is our schedule is less heavy.

  5. We just seem to have lost our beautiful football since 2010… we changed our football for a more reserved, sluggish, one dimensional, directionless football with the slowest midfield ever.. The football has become so mechanical, robotic, you never feel like we are going to do much against any half decent team..

    I just don’t like this no control type of football, players look so slow off the mark, can’t close down, they just jog around instead of pressing the opposition in possession..

    It’s not pretty to watch…

  6. Okay so people berating Wenger fir not playing Joel and saying he should have joined Benfica on loan, now cool your horses.
    Its not yet time.

    But the worst thing is we didn’t score from open play with such attacking prowess. And that’s depressing.

    1. That’s really why they’re mad. They can’t cry about Wenger being inept and not playing the brilliant Rosicky and Campbell anymore. I wonder why half of this board isn’t receiving calls to manage clubs, they seem to know more than anyone else!

      1. Hey, Rosicky and Joel were not hugely impressive today. True. However don’t make it seem like they had a shocker ALL GAME. That is decieving.

    2. This has been Campbells first full match.. So I would still give him a chance, he must be low on confidence for being ignored all season so far..

      1. I thought Campbell was pretty good. I would like to see what he could have done if Welbeck had been playing in the middle instead of Podolski. We had good play from the wingers but Podolski was a non-factor. I wish Wenger had switched Podolski to the LW, Campbell to the middle and Alexis the RW.

  7. Pod and Campel are overrated by Arsenal fans and better for their career and development to find other club …
    Hayden and Bellerin still need time to develop as EPL footballers …
    The 2nd goal should be denied by Ospina, but let’s not judge him by only one match …
    Wenger era is over ….. another 3 years of disappointment

    1. Let us not judge Ospina by only one match, but we can judge Joel by 2 games? After 2 games you think Campbell is OVERRATED?
      WOW!

      1. Yes, it is only two games but after his show in the WC, the fans rate him so high and demand too much from him which is not healthy for his development.

  8. and whoever said campbel is worlclass should be sent to iraq!!
    liar!!
    campbell was useless 🙁 🙁
    even chamakh wouldve scored against southampton 🙁 🙁

    1. I would have Campbell playing before Podolski every day of the week. Sorry guys but Podolski’s poor performances every game is unacceptable

  9. and only alexis and jack showed dertermination today the rest of the team played today should be sold to aston villa, no determination, mediocre!!!!! 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁

    2. the back 4 was actually pretty good, besides for one or two times they switched off. None of the goals were their fault, and they limited southampton to few clear chances. Jack wasnt that good. He just appeared it. Most of the time he was running into players instead of trying to actually pick out a pass.

  10. Tip for the Gooners who are getting mad about dropping out this thing… Get used to it for the next several seasons! We use these league cup games to test youth and give minutes to other. Theres a time to yell at Wenger but do it when we actually lose a game with substance and meaning. Even Mourinho and Fergie didnt care bout this thing. You shuld focus your anger on the fact we always drop out of Champions League, not Capital One Cup…

  11. @Henry12 Thank you. For you i could watch the 2nd half.

    So much for link sharing. None worked. And to think the whole game was on Arsenal Player for free.

      1. youre welcome mate 😀 😀 😀
        were all r gooners mate 😀 😀 😀
        but i still think chamakh > campbell tho 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁

  13. Le Coq and Podolski are not arsenal quality

    Tomas Rosicky was really poor today and all the gunners wanted 2 seconds to long on the ball.

    Not too upset due to the 2nd string players but felt like we should have still gone through!

  14. Issac Hayden was very good, bellerin grew into the game and alexis was a class above everyone else.
    Rosicky and podolski were very poor and the rest were average.

    Not too bothered just annoyed we played sanchez for 90mins.

    1. hopefully Hayden can actually become another viable option. Really rooting for Bellerin, Hayden, Akpom the break into first team.

  16. Recent performances by Podolski should quiet all those calling for him to play more – shouldn’t play wide, and definitely not as the CF.

    Promising from Hayden and Bellerin and especially Diaby. Poor from Tomas – he forced it a bit. Great appearance from Santi. Great appearance from the Ox..

    Flashes from Campbell but not enough. May have lost a bit of the confidence and swagger he came with from the summer. Still needs more chances.

      2. Or gustavo, but Draxler at 20, he’s the real deal (don’t care we have too many cam’s
        Mozart, bless him is ageing. 1 in 2 out.

    2. He’s just come from a foreign league, doesn’t speak English and has 4 goals in his last 5 games. We have a special player here.

  19. Well I couldn’t care less…but now we can shut our mouth about wenger not playing some players. He sees them in training everytime which we don’t. I hate to say this but podolski should be behind akpom. Wtf was that annonymous all night. And is it me or what I thought coquelin did brilliantly well. I would rather play him @ right back instead of chambers to avoid defencive disaster. Rosicky should just shut the f up. My positives oh diaby what a player and bellerin,hayden, negative poor reaction and poor positioning all through the night. Daiby is back. Am happy I dnt knw why maybe cos of diaby…

    1. There is one thing not playing some players who are out of form, but when Wenger starts with other players when they’re not in form is another thing.

  20. Sanchez has to be our most hard working and consistently good player. He always gives 100%

    Maybe Wenger should have rested him also in hindsight

    1. he shouldnt have played 90 minutes at least, but he didnt play this weekend so it was probably a good idea to give him some gametime.

    1. Arsenal’s majority shareholder, Stan Kroenke, has taken a payment of £3m out of the club according to the latest company accounts. Coincidentally, the £3m figure tallies with the amount the club raised from a 3% rise on season-ticket prices for this season.

      The money has been paid to Kroenke’s company, KSE LLC, for strategic and advisory services which relate to Arsenal’s broadband division, the media department which raises funds by selling a three-hour block of weekly content to the lucrative international market.

  22. Diaby still fit, didn’t shatter into Pieces, that’s a posistive i’m taking.
    Sod the cup, rest our players and focus on smahing the south /north scum bags

      1. exactly. Too soon to jump to conclusions. Season is young im sure they will all play their part this season. And its not the fact that Wenger dont play them, its that he doesnt rotate Ramsey and Ozil when he really should be to protect them from picking up an injury. Because were the worst team when it comes to injury luck.

    2. So you judged them based on this game? How many poor games have Ozil, Cazorla and Ramsey had and yet we continue to play them?

  25. All I will say is that he better not put a similar line up for the FA Cup. And for the love of God sign some quality defenders in January

  26. Off topic

    Can’t wait to see a team line up including all of these players: Walcott, Sanchez, Ozil, Ramsey, Wilshere, Welbeck

  27. i need to calm my self down now and preparing the list for excuses knowin that tomorrow im gonna face my united and chelsea fan mates i dont have to do this if arsenal won today but things happen so i better prepare for such humiliation thanks to arsene and campbell and friends 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁

    1. and the emirates i seriously think that that stadium is cursed weve never won anythin since we moved to the emirates oh oh we should google what emirates mean in arabic and i dont think its a good word 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁

    2. lol, if United mates laugh at you they have balls. Leicester, MK Dons… aint even in Champions League. you have more banter than them

      1. mate!!! u have to learn the history of soccer arsenal is the best team in england dont u dare 2 even compare arsenal and united!!!!!
        oh oh oh oh 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁
        were the invincibles u now??? 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁

  30. Off the topic
    If Ozil, Sanchez , Welbeck and Ramesy perform their best then we are going to beat Chels!t and Spu*s in upcoming games.

      1. my future gf!!! mate u have to learn american its international language 🙁 🙁 🙁
        shes bl0nde i prefer redhead but thats ok i dont complain 🙁 🙁 🙁

          1. oh right, thought you was going on about sex dolls.
            Crushes, someone you fancy, sorry yeah we call it the same too.

            Ive got loads of girlfreinds anyway so mares well forget what i said above.
            Init!

  34. I knew this would happen. I see Campbell being bashed but this is his only full appearance since the Emirates cup. He should be getting game time to increase his fitness even if it’s just 20 minutes each game. You can’t bench a player every game then play him for 90 mins and expect him to perform like he did in the world cup. Same issue with Podolski woh I think will be off in January.

      1. @ Hafiz Rahman ”what about abou diaby?”

        Diaby played just the other day for the U21’s so at least has some fitness momentum. Campbell will play 1 game then warm the bench for 5 more then get subbed on in the 80th minute if he’s lucky.

        I don’t think Diaby would be ready for last nights game without some game time under his belt from the under 21’s game

  37. Poldi and campbell could be off in jan/summer. Got to get another versatile winger that can cover either flank with sanxhez and walcott our fist teamers. Glad diaby made it unscathed but so wish we’d bough wanyamma, schneiderlin kkndogbia, benbender, carvalho etc in the summer window gone. Also hope hayden xan keep developing I’d like to see a cb pairing of kos and chambers/hayden. Per needs to be phased out to the bench and then out of the team in the near future. Surely wenger can see that he’s lost any edge he once had, (imo he never had anything to offer but trying to be kind). Lastly hope to see something of gnabry soon when hes fit again.

  39. If Wenger gets Carvalho, Hummels, Cavani and Draxler in January, I will be ok. Not happy but satisfied.

  40. Ok so perhaps a win would have made it perfect but DIABY!!!!! he looked good and will get better! That’s just such a positive!!! don’t much care about the result other than a win would have given the reserves/academy boys another run out…ah well.

    Ospina – was alright some smart saves and should have parried away at least the Clyne goal
    Hayden – nothing much wrong with that boy…nice work..future looks bright for him
    Bellerin – improving…good shift
    Chambers – didn’t really do anything wrong – looked pretty solid as the “senior” CB
    Coquelin – unfortunate he had to cover at LB
    Campbell – just rusty me thinks..the occasion, trying a bit too hard maybe..i wouldn’t write him off…he’s got the goods
    Sanchez – what can you say really that hasn’t already been said..WOW! what a player
    Poldi – hmmm….rusty or just doesn’t like playing as a lone striker…better off on the LW but that would have given Coquelin a night-mare! he’ll want to forget this nite.
    Jack – thought he was pretty good and enjoyed playing with Diaby
    Rosicky – clearly missing game time….rusty and not match sharp.

    For me it was all about Diaby…welcome back son!!!!

  42. What a goal by Sanchez! Just a shame about the pen and the amazing goal at the other end.

    Positives – less games to play, Sanchez is going to inspire the whole team, Campbell got a run out at last

    If Arsenal can survive with our remaining 5(adult) defenders, there is a real chance we can rip the Premier League apart. Having Welbeck and Sanchez up front and then tracking back is what some of the hairstyles haven’t done for us. Ozil needs these sort of players to look good, which he is.

  43. AW chose the team, with a few possible exceptions, that all you guys were promoting yesterday morning. What did we learn from the game? DIABY IS BACK!! And also, Bellerin and Hayden will not disgrace the team when needed. These are the most important observations. Poldi was not there, and Wilshere gave the ball away all the time. Although a bit disappointed that we didn’t win, if the game against the team 2nd on the log, only proved that we have some cover at the back, that Diaby should play as DM, that Campbell is worth keeping and that we need more penetration with guys like Ox, it served the purpose. The greatest pity is that the ‘fringe’ players will now not have more opportunities to start games and develop on the park.

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