I am not going to use the fact that Arsenal were on the wrong end of the decisions of the referee and his assistants for the first three of the four goals scored by Southampton as the reason we lost this Premier League away game. It was unlucky on us but these things happen and they were simple mistakes by the officials and these things can happen in football.
Arsenal were pretty lacklustre from the start and that was one of the major reasons for us losing this game so heavily. An absolute wonder striker from their fill in right back got them off and running but I think we also need to look at the reasons the Gunners struggled so much to create chances.
That was the first time we failed to score in the league since mid September, coincidentally enough another game that referee decisions had a big impact on. And I felt that the way John MOss reffed this game did have a significant influence.
Ronald Koeman got his tactics right and his players implemented them well by pressing us hard and not giving our big players any time or space on the ball. So the l;ikes of Giroud, Ozil and Ramsey struggled to have any impact. But the Saints were helped to do this by the lax approach of the ref.
On another day there would have been a lot more free kicks and quite a few yellow cards for persistent fouling. We will never know if that would have allowed our creative talent to shine through and made this a different game but it would surely have helped.
Victor Wanyama in particular was allowed to get away with all sorts and even after a studs up sliding tackle on Ramsey did not get booked. So all in all the home team got every bit of help they needed to implement their tactics which, unfortunately we could not cope with on the night.