We are all disappointed of course but at least Arsenal stay top of the League

Disappointed to say the least! by Shenel

Well that was a bit of a kick in the teeth now wasn’t it.

After many games have come and gone where wins have been an ever present, barring the Manchester United game of course, these two dropped points over the weekend now feel like a bit of a big loss if I am honest.

Upon starting the game bright and getting that goal it seemed as though it was going to be one of those afternoons where we could sit back and witness a two or three nil win, however that was not to be the case as after we went 1-0 up, our pace and press seemed to drop off.

Now that sort of thing affected us last season where we were not able to kill off games, and if this sort of thing begins to creep into our game again then we will drop back into how we were last season, and we do not want to undo all of the hard work we have done up until now.

Let’s not take anything away from Southampton though, as they did step up their game in the second half as we dropped off, and by doing so they made us look average and pulled back a goal for the equaliser.

But we can also say that had this game been last season we may have very easily gone from being one goal up and potentially winning the game, to losing the game, yet we held on for the draw.

I know it isn’t the end of the world but when you become so used to the team winning, which we have done in recent weeks. Anything other than a win is just disappointing.

I guess we have to be our own harshest of critics because that’s how champions work. A champion mentality is all about winning and it is good to see that so many of the boys are disappointed at the two dropped points.

So, the quicker we go out and get that that next win under our belts the better we will all be feeling.

Although we are still top of the league TOUCH WOOD, with a two-point cushion, and long may that continue!

But for now onwards and upwards we go!

Shenel Osman

@sh3n3l_

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33 Comments

  1. The season is still long, so anything could happen. Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea got more disappointing results

    If Tomiyasu plays RB against PSV, I think we’ll get at least a draw in Netherlands

    1. @GAI
      Man United are looking crisp right now. They seem to have clicked and are full of energy and intensity like we had at the start of the season..

      1. I wish they kept Ronaldo in their starting line-up to ruin their high pressing system, unfortunately Ten Hag got the balls to drop him

        1. Gai,
          Just as it seem Arsenal have a mental block against ManU in Old traford ,ManU will still be beaten by Arsenal in Emirate stadium mark my words. My concern is our strikers need to be more clinical and stop “passing to keepers” at time.s G.Jesus was bought to score goals and not be another ” Laccazeth” who kept working for the team without enough goals return.

          1. Unfortunately, we still need our CF to be our first defender and additional midfielder

            For example, Ronaldo is still a world-class goal-scorer, but he doesn’t have the stamina to do constant high press as Jesus does. If we have a CF who focuses on goal-scoring, we could end up like the toothless Man United

      2. Really, all I see are misplaced passes, no style, no substance just boring football, nothing like us whatsoever

  2. It’s going to be a bumpy ride. We are going to have moments of frustration throughout the season like we did against Southampton, United, etc..

    I fee like we have fallen off our performance levels since the Liverpool game. We are making it so very difficult for ourselves in nearly every match by not being clinical enough. Our front 3 a very good footballers that are very creative but when it comes of finishing of their chances they are very average. This keeps piling on more pressure on the team as a whole. In most games we get more than enough clear cut chances but scuff most of them hence why we end up with these nervy 1-0 finishes.

    Jesus, Martinelli l, Saka etc have got to be more clinical and that should give the team more breathing space..

    But we have to be honest with ourselves, our intensity levels have been dropping since that Liverpool game. May be Arteta should now start trusting his squad more, integrate the rest of our squad members into the first team with confidence. More rotation.

    It now feels disappointing even drawing a single game this season due to the high levels the team has shown from preseason. May be we got too ahead of ourselves now thinking we should be blitzing each and every opponent we are pitted against.

    1. Agree completely about how we must be more clinical in taking our chances. We just don’t seem to have the killer instinct in front of goal. We go 1 up and then seem to relax and take our foot off the gas.

  3. It’s the performance of Arsenal more so for me against Southampton than the result.

    First 20 minutes we were in control, dictating the game, and had momentum. Everything you want to see.

    However, Southampton grew into the game while we slowly faded. They out hussled us, and soon began out playing us as we saw in the 2nd half.

    Was it fatigue? Who knows, but the front 3 and Odegaard were poor on the day. Xhaka was the only bright spot, and the attackers need to find something because they were easily handled by Southampton.

    Don’t want to hear about the ref, Saka diving, Jesus flopping on the ground like a fish out of water.

    Spuds were physical with us, kicking out, but we handled it. We’ve overcome physical matches this year, so I don’t buy the ref excuses in this one.

    Some players clearly need a rest, gaffer has to find a way to mix in some bench players with his preferred starters. Can’t run out the same group twice a week every week.

  4. I was expecting this result. Southampton has been a nightmare to Arsenal for a longtime. In last 5 years Arsenal did not show a good record against Southampton especially away from home.

  5. Let’s be serious on here we are not at the level if City yet.So as far so good as we’r top of the league but Let’s not delude out selves City is too string with way more depth and quality.We should tie our key players to New contracté and strengthen in January if possible.Top four should be our main target this year

    1. It looks like arsenal fans are setting a new standard for the team. First it was top 4. Now, challenge man city for the title. That’s too high.

      1. I just think fans are looking behind and see the other teams very close. You have a resurgent Man United and Newcastle. City are City. You have Chelsea and Spuds too. It’s getting congested from 1st to 6th place..

        It’s going to be a very tough season as always..

        1. GOONSTER, I DONT AGREE THAT THE OTHER TEAMS, CITY APART, ARE CLOSE AT ALL.

          JUST ELEVEN GAMES IN AND WE ARE MANY PONTS CLEAR OF ALL OUR OTHER MAIN RIVALS AND A GAME IN HAND ON SOME TOO. A significant gap at this stage and I do not see how any fan can sensibly think its not!

  6. Man City are clear favourites no doubt especially given their closest challengers in recent campaigns Liverpool not a contender this season however I find it fascinating that a large majority of football fans and pundits have already awarded Man City the title and believe they will ‘walk the league’ have they not learnt anything from the recent past! I have heard that same retoric since around 2014 but how many times has that actually come to fruition?

    Let’s do some revisionism over the last 8 seasons

    2014,2019,2021-Man City won the title on the final day, with Liverpool incredibly finishing runners upnon all three occasions by a measley 1 point twice and 2 points on the other occasion.
    2020-Liverpool were crowned PL champions
    2015,2017-Chelsea were champions
    2016 – Unfortunately Leicester beat us to it.

    Only in 2018 Man City Centurions comfortably finished ahead of Man Utd and the same again in 2021 when Liverpool were decimated by injuries. So in that time frame the Man City ‘will walk the Premier League’ has actually only materialized in two out of the subsequent seasons!

    In terms of our own title chances if we can still be leading the table by January and strengthen ideally four positions st, RW/LW, CM, LCB which is highly unlikely so at least two players (CM and RW/LW/ST) along with the return from injuries of Zinny, ESR and Elneny, why can’t we push City all the way?

  7. The manner of the performance was far more concerning than the result itself. The first 20 mins was excellent and it was indeed looking like it was going to be a tough day for Southampton, but to Hassenhuttl’s credit he made a tactical decision that we didn’t counter and it went downhill from there.

  8. Against PSV:

    ——– Turner
    Cedric – Holding – Gabriel – Tierney
    ———- ASL – Xhaka
    Nelson – Vieira – Marq
    ——– Nketiah

    Xhaka, Gabriel hopefully subbed at some early stage. We could leave Saka, Ramsdale, Saliba home and fill the bench with Hein, Sagoe jr, Smith etc.

    This way our our starting XI against Nottingham would have total rest apart from few players (Rams, White, Saliba, Tomi, Partey, Saka, Marti, Jesus, Öde rested).

  9. @Pires @Soccer boy
    Why not aim higher? We are in an incredible position that not many fans and pundits thought we would be in, admittedly but this is a massive opportunity to do something special this season. No doubt Man City have a better squad and Manager with winning experience than us but they are not unbeatable and have weaknesses, especially in defence.

    Football is unpredictable, so there is no guarantee we will be this good next season or the one after (we could also be though) this is our best chance since the Leicester season, don’t want have regrets and repeat the same mistakes of 08, 011,014 and 016 seasons.

    I hope those at the club(owners, board, Arteta and the players have this mentality)

  10. My first comment on the Saints game and what I watched.
    I have to disagree with Durand’s comments above, regarding the referee.
    If there was ever a case for saying that a referee cheated, then this was the one.
    He booked Saka for, what he saw as diving… then completely ignored Walcott’s.
    He turned away when Jesus was being manhandled in the penalty area, while I witnessed chelsea getting a penalty for the self same incident against manure.
    There is an interesting article on YouTube about this referee I urge you all to read.
    I’m not sure who was in charge of VAR, but I would not be surprised if one of the retired clowns from last season, like Dean, was on duty.

    This “ref” influenced the outcome of the game without a doubt.

    I thought we should have been at least two goals up by half time, if the correct decisions were given.

    There is no doubt that Thursday /Sunday games are affecting the players and I would like to see MA rest every player who started the Saints game this coming Thursday.

    As a realist, I knew we would drop points, but we are still top of the league and worthy of being there.

    Our defensive side of the game proved they could withstand the onslaught that Southampton produced in the second half…. that’s the positive I’m taking from the game, that and the really hard earnt point.

    1. Fair comments Ken, I respect your opinion and that you disagree. I’m sure you know I was not implying the ref was innocent by any means, just that our players failed to adapt and overcome.

      We have seen our players do that against the spuds and Liverpool when they got physical and starting kicking out.

      We were outhustled, outplayed, and the ref only added to the obstacles on the day.

      Jesus should have countered their CB with speed not a losing battle of strength.

      Saka clearly dived, and he was rightly carded. It makes me sick watching Zaha’s antics, and sad state to see that from Saka. Can’t remember Martinelli or ESR diving, although I could be wrong.

      We looked fatigued in the second half, and unable to press defensively while playing aggressive on the front foot.

      Subs came far too late, and without ESR there isn’t someone on the bench to spark and turn a game around in attack.

      The performance was the disappointment for me, not so much the result. We faded and lost the intensity, directness, and mentality we started the match with. That part is on our players, not the poor officiating by the ref.

    2. kEN I FIND IT SAD THAT A MATURE MAN LIKE YOU, who was a ref yourself, can so easily accuse refs of being cheats. I agree his wrong decisions affected the result, almost for sure.

      I attend a Croydon Refs society meeting monthly( I run the line on most Sundays , so am a so called asst. ref) and I know all the decent men in this refs society would be horrified if they thought someone of YOUR standing could think them cheats.

      I DO AGREE MOST PREM REFS – and of course all the way down too- ARE HORRENDOUS IN STANDARD.

      I thought R. Jones was shocking and then some. He was awful and needs demoting IMO.
      But to accuse fine, honest, put upon and badly treated people of cheating ,is extremely disappointing to read from YOU of all people.

      THAT IS A GRAVE AND SERIOUS CHARGE.
      I agree with the rest of your non refs part of your post, though.

    3. I also found Durand’s comments strange Ken – he seemed to be conflating two things, the ref’s performnance and the physicality of the game.

      Overcoming physical opposition is one thing, but doing so when the ref is letting them get away with *excessive* physicality and adding in a few other bad decisions as well… that’s completely different.

      It seems PL teams have now decided that the only way to counter Jesus is to foul him, wrestle him and out-muscle him. They see other teams getting away with it, so they will do the same – until referees put a stop to it.

  11. Durand :Thanks for your reply and I was only commenting on your referee point.
    There was no doubt that we were tired and the performance was probably the worst of the season – but my point was that, if the referee had actually done his job properly, we could have gone in at half time with a two goal lead and that would have given those tired players a different attitude.

    Jon – it has now been established that this “referee” told Jesus that if he had gone down under the challenge (some would say diving) he would have looked at the incident differently.
    WHY?
    As a referee who had booked Saka for diving, why would he then advocate that Jesus should have done just that, in order to make his decision making easier for him?

    He was cheating and not strong enough to make a decision.
    Likewise, his decision to ignore Walcott’s dive, while booking Saka – this is inexcusable and the man refereed the game as a “homer”.

    That is cheating in my book and I suggest you read the comments of many other ex referees regarding his performance?

    They may not go as far as I have, but that is my personal view and we should start challenging these outrageous decisions – if one is supposed to be an “elite referee” earning an average £75,000, should he REALLY be telling a player to dive in order to make a decision?

  12. It seems, Jon, that the FA are looking into the decisions made during the game… perhaps they also feel the same way as myself?

    1. I will enter the chat and say that Ben white also dived which was a pathetic attempt at cheating but wasn’t booked Ken .

      1. DK, look at the Walcott incident and tell me that it was as clear as the Saka or White incident… yet only one player was booked, an away player!!!
        You watched the game, so why is the FA looking at the decisions made?

        Jon (below) I don’t HAVE to try!!

        When a referee says to a player “if you had gone down (dived) under the initial challenge, I would have viewed it differently?”
        In other words, he cheated the player, the fans and The Arsenal, by not making that initial decision himself… that is what he is paid to do isn’t it?
        Let’s see what the FA make of it shall we?

        By the way Jon, your being very nieve in thinking that no referee has ever been found to have cheated – just as players and a certain manager have been found to have cheated.
        The game is riddled with people who have cheated, just look at fifa and uefa,who have been convicted.

        If your idea that it’s just “incompetence” why are they still allowed to referee?

        Someone, somewhere, is cheating the players and paying fans, by allowing this to carry on happening.

        To encourage players to dive, then booking players for doing just that is not within the rule book.

    2. You have established gross incompetence Ken, with which I AGREED.

      BUT YOU HAVE NOT ESTABLISHED “CHEATING” AND NOR SHOULD YOU TRY.

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