Morning all.
Seconds before kickoff, the Sky Sports cameras panned towards the Arsenal dugout. Mikel Arteta was wandering whilst his assistant Albert Stuivenberg sat, singing the words of the Arsenal song, North London Forever, together with the fans. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before, I loved it…..
On a night when Arsenal needed to get off to a good start and take control of the game, things couldn’t have gone more wrong. What Aaron Ramsdale was thinking when he played his first ball out from the back I’ve no idea but before he could blink, the ball was past him and in the back of the net. Then our old boy Theo Walcott caused even more damage by making it 2-0. Awful from Mikel Arteta’s men.
Oleksandr Zinchenko gathered the players around for a quick word, probably in attempt to calm the nerves, Captain Martin Odegaard and Zinchenko then had a little chat before play resumed. Weird.
Six minutes later, brilliant work from Bukayo Saka down the right followed by a ball across the box, and there was Gabriel Martinelli to fire home to make it 1-2. From that moment on it was pretty much all Arsenal as far as possession goes..
Until 68 minutes and a Southampton corner. 1-3.
Two more Arsenal goals came along. One in the 88th and the other in the 90th minute – the first was a lovely strike by Martin Odegaard and the second from Bukayo Saka which sealed a point, a point which so very nearly became three when Leandro Trossard clipped the bar in stoppage time and again when James Ward-Prowse somehow blocked a goal bound shot from Reiss Nelson.
Mistakes were made on the pitch last night, individually and collectively. We weren’t clinical enough up front, nor decisive in midfield or defence. But, one of the clearest mistakes in my opinion, was made before the game even kicked off. Fabio Vieira, a player whose not only played very little this season, but hasn’t been particularly effective when he has. Not for one minute do I understand why Mikel Arteta thought he was a better option than Leandro Trossard or Emile Smith-Rowe.
Mikel Arteta on whether it was a difficult match for Fabio Vieira:
It was a difficult match for a lot of players but for Fabio, he hasn’t played enough minutes. He had good periods but the way the game starts as well, instead of going one or two-nil up, and everything goes in your favour, it starts to go in a much more difficult way. That doesn’t help.
I’m not sure this stage of the season is time to be giving him more minutes either. Leandro Trossard and Reiss Nelson caused Southampton more problems in the time they were on the pitch Vieira did in just under an hour. Eddie Nketiah coming on seemed like a moment of desperation and hope rather than a tactical master stroke.
How can a goalkeeper, who at times has been outstanding for Arsenal this season, make such a big mistake at the beginning of a game? How can the midfield/defence play so poorly to allow such a simple Southampton move to end with a goal. It was schoolboy stuff. As was the defending for Southampton’s third. Even before the corner was taken, Caleta-Car was so committed to doing something with it yet not one Arsenal player tried to stop him.
I know I’ve written it before but how can a group of players who just two weeks ago were thrashing Leeds Utd 4-1, Crystal Palace 4-1, Fulham 3-0 – suddenly look so different on the pitch? Is it as simple as the loss of William Saliba has upset the balance of the team or in yesterday’s case, Granit Xhaka missing through illness too, or even the return of Gabriel Jesus? Is it simply nerves and the lack of experience? Or is it simply a late season collapse, after all, we’ve seen them before and not just under Mikel Arteta’s management. Or had/has a little bit of complacency/cockiness set in?
With 74% ball possession and 25 shots on goal, more than 6 have to be on target!
Now of course we have to face Man City at The Etihad. Probably the toughest toughest match on the fixture list each season for every club, but, there is hope as Everton went there on New Year’s Eve and left with a point and Brentford beat them 2-1 back in November of last year but that’s it I’m afraid. Just 4 points dropped at home all season by Guardiola’s side.
We’re still top of the League with a five point advantage over City but they have two games in hand. Still, if we beat them, the ball would be firmly back in our court. Mikel Arteta says he can’t wait for the City game but me, I can’t wait for it to be over…
Catch up in the comments..
The defence without Saliba is pretty woeful BUT in 20 games in all competitions in 2023 we have only 6 clean sheets and that includes Oxford!
In 14 games we have conceded 22 . That is simply bad.
Gabriel can be bullied ( god forbid Haarland faces him and Holding)
We do not have good defensive full backs
Partey is sloppy in front of the back 4
Ramsdale is a shot stopper not a commanding keeper.
Vieira should be nowhere near this club. A miserable signing alongside Turner.
Nketiah should have Ben sold years ago and now people trumpet Nelson on the basis of 20 Minutes against Bournemouth.
We don’t have a cf who offers anything different.
We have done well to get 2nd in a season when United Pool Chelsea have been miserable. Next season will be a different story.
Our squad needs significant upgrades through out
Morning Rico. It doesn’t feel any better this morning for me. Not at all. Last night was an appalling display, at home, against the bottom team in the league and with a PL championship to play for. If that isn’t motivation enough then what is? It’s hard not to single out individuals so I will do just that. Yes, Ramsdale can make brilliant saves, but he can also let in goals that he should have saved. We’ve seen both in the past 2 games. Arteta must have drummed into his head, as well as the rest of the team, that whatever happens, we cannot, under any circumstances give away a stupid early goal. This sort of nonsense has been in Ramsdale’s playbook ever since he arrived. What you surely need from your goalkeeper is high levels of consistency. That moment of madness after a few seconds set the tone for much of the game. He needs to reflect but then he’s needed to do that a few times after doing stupid and inept things while under no pressure.
Fabio Vieira has so far been a disaster. Thirty five million quid and enough opportunities and he was hiding way out on the left, praying that he wouldn’t get the ball. When he did he looked like a featherweight in with a heavyweight. How on earth he started in front of Smith-Rowe, Trossard or even Reiss, I cannot imagine. Unless he is some sort of vanity project for Mikel who is determined to prove that he’s not the waste of money that seems so apparent?
There is a huge elephant in the room too, in the shape of Jesus who I think should have had a hat-trick last night. He seems forever on the floor with his arms outstretched. His strike rate, given the chances he gets, is abysmal. Is it the injury aftermath or the same reason that Pep played him wide before selling him.
I could go on but I am boring myself now and I am naturally reluctant to criticise when I need to support. But, when we have been so good most of the season and now look so bad it’s going to draw all sorts of comments and few of them will be positive because it looks as if we are going to throw it away.
Hi Rico.. nice read on what was such a difficult night.
That Ramsdale howler so early on (I couldn’t believe what I was seeing) was something we never recovered from. I’m shocked by the amount of individual errors we’ve seen over the last few weeks, especially at this stage of the season.
We’ve only turned up for 20 minutes max in the last few games which is really disappointing. Had the Saints not made their substitutions, I wonder if we’d have got anything from that game. I know they’re battling relegation, but come on we ‘were’ fighting for the title!!! City have so much experience in getting over the line, whereas we don’t, so to hand it to them in the manner we have is devastating.
Yes, the plan all along was to get back in the CL (not there yet) but having been top for so long and to miss out now is a real punch in the gut. As you can see I’m not expecting anything from Wednesday night, except potentially a slaughtering (& more individual errors). I’m sorry to be such a Debbie downer, but I’m so disappointed…
Good morning all.
Thanks Adam, you’ve said it all, no need for me to repeat it. 😕
I shall be in the wilds of Lincolnshire on Wednesday evening, visiting an old friend, so will not be watching the game. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or bad.
Probably good for your heart , although after the last three games I think the die is cast and I don’t think the players believe any more .Such is the absolute despondency that St Totts has gone by unnoticed and deservedly so .
Like everyone else I guess my mouth fell open at the naivety at the beginning which following the debacle against Bournemouth should have been fresh in everyone’s mind and surely it must have been drummed in to all of them to do nothing risky and just start steadily .
Obviously not !
I made my feelings about Vieira quite plain last night and in reflection nothing has changed . The fact that we missed Xhaka so badly speaks volumes about where we need to improve . The Portuguese is not the answer , he may be a tricky player but he doesn’t fit into the hustle of English football and we need to get what we can and get rid because we have our own touchy midfielders that have been born to the way we play . ( Patino and Smith – Rowe ) what we need is another Partey because he appears to need to rest after 6 games.
Quite why Jorginho wasn’t there instead of Xhaka I can’t fathom perhaps Arteta thought that it was a roll over , if so he got that badly wrong.
Any way unless there is a miracle against City the game is up , time like last year to see what Nelson , Smith-Rowe bring to the table both must be considering their futures I know if I was stuck on the bench behind Vieira I would be .
What we need is a midfielder who knows how to win the ball, without committing a foul, by tackling. Too often we see teams waltzing through the midfield accompanied by our players rather than trying to oppose them.
I can’t understand these “deliveries” from Ramsdale. Even if it hadn’t been a goal, passing the ball in a central zone of the defense to a player who has his back to the game and surrounded by opponents is suicide. How was it this time. As it was against Sporting.
I also cannot understand how Odegard and Vieira played simultaneously. There are two lefties, who on paper, one plays when the other does not play.
Gabriel Jesus is a good player but it seems that the team prefers a different type of player. Saliba out and 7 (!!!) goals conceded. Just look at yesterday’s 3rd goal and Holding’s lack of jump time.
We have to go to City and get the same result they did in the Emirates.
However, we could have overturned yesterday’s result. It was enough to have had some luck, remembering that you can shoot from afar and above all shoot on goal and that the referee was not so condescending. It is not clear how the goalkeeper manages to reach the end without a yellow card or by mere coincidence (?) in both halves, when Arsenal are right on top, a Southampton player remains on the pitch complaining of pain, is not assisted from outside from the field, the game stopped for a few minutes and then started to run full of physical freshness.
I continue to believe that it is possible!
We continue to depend only on ourselves.
Afternoon Adam, Sue.
I think we all pretty much feel the same about the game and the selection of Vieira before other options. Surely he, Lokonga too will be sold this summer. What I thought amusing for the want of a better expression is the way he tried to lift the fans by waving his arms about – probably the most committed a performance from him all game.
Agree re the Southampton subs Sue, thank goodness their first goal scorer went off. He was a menace..
If they go down he might be worth a punt
Cost them £12 million in January . I doubt that he came to play in the Championship
Vieira doing that crowd rousing schtick was infuriating.
Him and one or two more Potter.
Surely Vieira won’t start on Wednesday if Xhaka is missing again.
The ESR stuff is odd..
Rico. There’s a lot that’s odd right now. I’d almost forgotten about Jorginho. Surely he brings more than Vieira?
Let’s be charitable and say Arteta wanted to see if Vieira would offer anything as a Xhaka back-up, after all he hasn’t had that many minutes. That said, I think he demonstrated that his future lies elsewhere.
Adam, I hope Jorginho and Partey start on Wednesday.
I think you’d be a better option than Vieira. 😂
Thank you Rico. I think you would be too. 😀
Surely not Cicero, not unless he thought beating Southampton would be a walk in the park.
😆 Adam
Adam, kudos for the calm analysis, and not blaming Holding.
And a perfect point from JM: since Vieira is Odegaard’s backup in ‘lesser games’, it makes no sense whatsoever to play them together. (I’ll go for the vanity project explanation.) The same reason Jorginho doesn’t play together with Partey or Tierney with Oleks; they are each other’s substitute.
The point I disagree with most is the need for hardcore reinforcements. Obviously we could use a player of Rice or Moussa Diaby’s caliber. But we didn’t play shit against West Ham and Southampton because we don’t have quality players, or because Saliba is injured, and certainly not because we don’t have players on the bench who can decide games. The same team who destroyed Nottingham Forest, won back to back against Tottenham, Leicester and Aston Villa would have defeated Southampton with little effort. And the players are here. It was more of a motivational issue – at least in my opinion. OK, the starting lineup was sub-optimal (I also would have opted for Tierney and ESR), but when there is 19 places between the 2 teams we cannot blame it to a single selection discrepancy. It was the lack of proper preparation, motivation, peak performance timing. So basically a manager mistake. Which – obviously! – doesn’t make Arteta a bad manager, but there are things he is really great at, there are things which he is quite poor (and a lot in between). And the fact that we were 9 points ahead at 70% of the campaign does not contradict this assertion.
Good to see Guardiola played a strong eleven in the FA Cup today.
They would have won that with the tea lady and the guy on the turnstiles . The way Sheffield played they were in awe of City who didnt have to raise a sweat and Mahrez’s second was like the parting of the red sea as no-one even went near him .
Any hope that City would be tired out by today was squashed when they got their standard penalty from then it was just stroll around and see out the time and give the subs a run out .
Wednesday is what it is , nothing has changed it’s win or bust . Even though mathematically after a loss it’s still possible our confidence which is already rocking will be completely shot .
Morning Rico and all.
I got this gut feeling that we might course an upset this week and beat Man City
Totts are at 20 minutes making a great result in Newcaste.
Excellent pass by Willock in the 4th goal.
Ladies aren’t doing too well in Volkswagen town. Unsurprisingly with their four best players all with long term injuries. They’re down to the bare bones. Good luck to them they’re going to need it
6 – 1 to the Magpies, Spuds mashed! Must not get too excited, we’ve got to go there soon.
2 – 2 now.
A good come back for Arsenal Women from two nil down to get a 2 – 2 draw.
Excellent result from the ladies. Fabulous just have to finish the job at the Emirates on May Day. 46500 tickets sold already. It’s going to be a noisy night!
Oh me of little faith, earlier😵💫
Morning all
New post up
Hi Rico I have not received any more posts from you in May
Can you help me – I miss them.
Sylvia