Arsenal were once again left to rue a poor defensive display on Sunday, which completely undermined their chances of securing all three points against Southampton.
As in their previous league game at home to Manchester United, Arsenal began the game in extremely lethargic fashion, especially from a defensive point of view. After the debacle of going two goals down inside the opening 20 minutes against United, it would have been hoped that the Gunners had learnt their lesson but unfortunately the same mistakes were simply repeated once again. With Shkodran Mustafi out injured, Wenger made the decision to start Per Mertesacker at the centre of his back three, which seemed a slightly bizarre decision even before the match had kicked off given that Wenger now has both Rob Holding and Callum Chambers back in the fold, with both having played the full 90 minutes against BATE Borisov the previous Thursday. Mertesacker was never a player blessed with pace and his advancing years have only made matters worse. Therefore if the German is ever caught out of position he has absolutely no hope of recovering. Against Southampton on Sunday, it was painful at times to see how easy it was for the Saints to get past him and leave him threading water in their wake. Although neither Holding nor Chambers are speed demons, surely they are more capable of getting back into position than Mertesacker. The German’s performance did not vindicate his manager’s decision to start him as he was directly culpable for the opening goal, executing a poor clearance and gifting possession to Southampton before falling over his own feet as Tadic played the ball through to Charlie Austin for the Englishman to steer the ball beyond Cech inside the opening two minutes.
Arsenal were all at sea, as the defence were caught out of position time and time again, at times resembling school children as two or three would be attracted to the ball at the same time, leaving vast open space behind them for Southampton to exploit. The Gunners were somewhat fortunate therefore to escape this period of the game only one goal down and in truth were extremely relieved at times to see the linesman’s flag catching a Southampton man offside more by luck than as a result of any defensive organisation.
Having survived a dreadful opening 10 minutes, Arsenal did begin to dominate the ball and saw Southampton begin to retreat further and further back, however for all their possession the Gunners did not create many goal scoring opportunities. Their passing was not incisive and there was a distinct lack of movement up front so the man on the ball ended up having to play a square pass and the tempo of the attack would therefore slow down to walking pace, enabling Southampton to get into their defensive positions. In such situations quick movement of the ball and runs in behind the opposition are key to getting the defence turned around and moved out of position. Yet Arsenal didn’t do this at all and so it was very easy for Southampton to repel them. In fact Frasier Forster didn’t have much to do all game as the Gunners didn’t really do enough from an attacking point of view to get themselves back into the match.
Alexandre Lacazette, starved of any quality service, became a peripheral figure in the game as those behind him, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil failed to have any real influence on proceedings. Ozil had one of those frustratingly quiet games while Sanchez gave the ball away far too often or attempted to do too much with it, trying to go past three or four players and ending up going into a mass of Southampton players when a simple pass would have been the easier and better option. Sanchez did provide the cross from which substitute Olivier Giroud steered a wonderful header into the bottom corner of the net, but the goal owed more to Giroud’s quality finish than the cross from Sanchez. More should be expected from both Ozil and Sanchez but Wenger seems impervious to dropping them, despite having the likes of Danny Welbeck having returned to full fitness. Welbeck is by no means as talented but at the very least he does work hard for the team and puts his all into every game.
Yet Arsenal’s attack didn’t just suffer as a result of the forward players. Wenger’s decision to stick to three at the back means that any width must come from the attacking full backs. However one of those players, Hector Bellerin, is not enjoying his best spell in an Arsenal shirt and this is somewhat undermining the Gunners attack. With Southampton sitting deep and happy to defend in numbers, it was vital for Arsenal to get the ball wide and open up the pitch. In fact it was from such a position that they managed to restore parity. Unfortunately Bellerin’s touch and delivery were woeful on Sunday and therefore the Gunners were unable to utilise him as an effective attacking option, further restricting their choices and playing into Southampton’s hands. Bellerin has not enjoyed a great season so far and with Debuchy playing well in the games he has featured in so far this season, maybe it is time for Wenger to give the Frenchman an opportunity and rest Bellerin.
Ultimately though, as against United, Arsenal would have emerged victorious had they not been the masters of their own downfall. It is simply inexcusable to start a game in such lethargic fashion, conceding so early on as a result of yet another mistake and giving yourself a mountain to climb yet again. The quality of the Premier League is such that mistakes will be punished more often than not and therefore a team simply cannot gift the opposition an early lead in the manner that Arsenal have during their last two league outings. Wenger must address this key issue as his side heads into the busy Christmas period.
No comments:
Post a Comment