Southampton 2-2 Arsenal
Arsenal came away from Saint
Mary’s stadium last night with a somewhat disappointing draw, which left their
position at the top of the league extremely vulnerable. The Gunners had a
perfect opportunity to pile the pressure on both Chelsea and Manchester City,
by opening up a four point lead at the top of the table, but blew it with a
terrible first half performance in which they struggled to even cross the
halfway line.
Southampton, to their credit,
were absolutely outstanding in the first period. The home side pressed Arsenal
high up the field, their collective work rate relentless, as they pushed the
Gunners deeper and deeper into their own half. The Saints disrupted Arsenal’s
play time and time again, preventing the Gunners from building any rhythm to their
game with pass after pass going astray. With injuries to Ramsey, Rosicky and
Wilshere depriving Wenger of a central midfielder capable of carrying the ball
and driving at the heart of the opposition defence, Arsenal were a side short
of ideas in the first half. Flamini and Arteta were sat right on top of the
defence which prevented the away side from being able to apply significant
pressure on Southampton’s midfield. As a result, Mauricio Pochettino’s side
were allowed far too much time and space in the middle of the park, enabling
them to comfortably retain possession and spray passes at will.
The home side were therefore
completely dominating proceedings and enjoying the lion’s share of possession. Whenever
Arsenal did regain possession, they were far too deep to be able to work their
way out of their own half and with red shirts swarming all over them,
invariably lost the ball once more. Giroud was dropping back deeper and deeper
as the half wore on and this only compounded the problem further as it led to
Arsenal losing their target man, unable to attempt to clear their lines with a
long ball towards the big Frenchman.
Given the nature of the game, it
was only a matter of time before Southampton took the lead. Arsenal had been
riding their luck since the first whistle, with Giroud heading Lallana’s effort
off the line as early as the third minute, Gallagher forcing Szczesny into a
fine save five minutes later and Schneiderlin volleying wide when he really
should have hit the target. In the 21st minute, the pressure finally
told when a wonderful cross from the impressive and highly sought after, Luke
Shaw, found Jose Fonte (brother of former Gunner Rui Fonte) at the back post.
The Portuguese easily outmuscled Monreal, whose positioning was terrible, to
head the ball home. Szczesny may have done better to stop the ball from
crossing the line, but the goalkeeper was somewhat off balance having come to
collect the cross, but then retreated back towards goal as the ball sailed
towards the back post.
Southampton were deservedly in
the lead and should have doubled their advantage eight minutes before halftime
when Monreal’s poor attempted clearance deflected off Steven Davis and straight
to Gallagher, right in front of goal. Fortunately Szczesny was alive to the
situation, raced off his line and spread himself as wide as possible, forcing
the youngster to skew his effort wide. Five minutes later and Koscielny was
this time called into action as he produced an excellent block to prevent
Gallagher from firing on goal once again.
Finally, with 45 minutes played,
Arsenal managed to muster their first attempt on goal as Ozil’s corner was
flicked on by Mertesacker at the near post and Koscielny’s effort was saved by
Boruc at point blank range. Although it would have been extremely harsh on
Southampton had they entered the half time break all square, the chance did
give Arsenal at least a glimmer of hope that they could salvage something from
this match.
The Gunners knew they had plenty
of work to do to get themselves back into the game and wasted no time in the
second half, restoring parity within three minutes of the restart. Sagna surged
forward and outmuscled Rodriguez on the edge of the box, before firing a low
ball across the area for Giroud to flick into the bottom corner with an
exquisite back heel. Suddenly Arsenal were playing higher up the pitch, showing
a power and verve to their game which had been sorely lacking in the first
half. Every time they burst forward, the Gunners appeared dangerous and in the 52nd
minute they took the lead through Santi Cazorla, whose shot from just outside
the area was steered right into the bottom corner and out of Boruc’s grasp.
Having taken the lead, Arsenal
now needed to take a collective deep breath and keep things tight at the back
for the next 10-15 minutes. Had they been able to do this, the Gunners may well
have taken all three points from this game. Unfortunately, however, within a
minute of taking the lead, the away side conceded once again. A long ball down
the line by Shaw, should have been dealt with by Sagna or Mertesacker, but the
two seemed to leave it for the other, allowing Rodriguez to race onto the ball
and reach the by-line before steering a pass back to Lallana, who was
completely unmarked in the middle of the area. The England international simply
couldn’t miss, firing past Szczesny to make the score 2-2.
Arsenal did have a couple of
opportunities to take the lead once again, first through Ozil, who burst
through the Southampton defence with an excellent run. As he reached the
penalty area, the German international attempted a low shot across goal but saw
his effort deflected off a Southampton defender. The ball looped up over Boruc,
but frustratingly, onto the crossbar rather than into the net. A few minutes
later, Monreal was released into the area by an excellent pass from Arteta. The
Arsenal left back should have shot across goal, but compounded a poor
performance by electing for a near post finish which he hit horrendously high
and wide.
With the final ten minutes
approaching, the Gunners hopes of launching a final assault on the Southampton
goal and snatching a late winner were dashed when Flamini was correctly sent
off for a horrible two footed lunge. Although he did win the ball, the
Frenchman should know tackles like that will only ever result in an early bath.
As a result, Arsenal were forced to hold on for a draw, which they managed to
do in relative comfort.
Although this may be seen as a
point well gained, at the final whistle, the Gunners could not shake off
feelings of great frustration at what might have been. To simply throw away a
first half with such an abject performance is inexcusable. When Arsenal finally
got their act together and applied pressure on the Southampton goal, they showed
they were more than capable of winning this game. Unfortunately they allowed
the home side right back into it once they had taken the lead and now must rely
on other results going their way if they are to maintain their place at the top
of the table. With such a tough run of fixtures coming up in the next two
months, Arsenal cannot afford to drop points against sides they should be
beating.
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