Southampton ran out wearing a replica of their 1976 FA Cup winning shirt, so for possibly the first time ever an Arsenal team wore their red home kit in a Southampton stadium. Arteta, shorn of Rice, Timber, Hincapie, Eze and Saka rang in the changes. Max Dowman started whilst on the bench was three of his academy team mates, Harriman Annous, Salmon and the young Irish wing forward O’Neill. If Sporting’s spies were at the game I’d be very surprised if they returned to Portugal with any new revelations other than Arsenal are quite vulnerable to a long pass over the top.
Southampton winger Scienza fell in the Arsenal box after only 3 minutes but VAR cleared it in the Gunners favour. 3 minutes later Dowman spun, leaving his marker flailing and ran at the Southampton box, cutting inside but his shot lacked power and was comfortably saved by the Saints keeper. Arsenal as expected dominated the possession in those early periods of the game but I couldn’t help feeling that there was a kind of lackadaisical element to our play as both Mosquera and then Lewis Skelly gave away possession with poor control and loose passing. We really didn’t need those early turnovers and an uncertainty seemed to spread across the team.
It seemed that Arsenal had spotted something about Southamptons defence, maybe their goalkeeper because we employed the short corner more than at any time that I’d seen this season. From one of those after 10 minutes Odegaard slipped a short pass to Jesus who returned the ball to Martin who then set up Martinelli, his powerful drive was deflected and that became a pattern for the rest of the game. Good build up but no finish. Another corner on 17 saw Jesus bend a dangerous shot just too high and wide of the far post, that’s as good as it got for the Brazillian A minute later, Southampton broke on an Arsenal defence that wasn’t at its best and only a surging run and tackle by Mosquera saved a disaster.
Arsenal then went through a period of putting the Saints under intense pressure which had the south coast club hanging on for dear life. The magic was still there it just wasn’t consistent enough. Around 24 minutes this pressure saw Dowman go close again and then Odegaard had a shot parried, then some smart combination play put Dowman in on goal but again but his shooting let him down and it was saved by the goalkeeper instead of being blasted into the net.
On 31 Havertz got off a shot that was deflected and just past the post with the goalkeeper stranded. Unfortunately Arsenal’s wastefulness came back to bite them on 35 minutes when a Southampton counter attack saw Ben White misjudge a cross and the ball fell to Stewart who dispatched it past a flailing Kepa – did anyone think he might save it, not me.
Following the Southampton goal Arsenal lost all semblance of composure leading to some quite unArsenal like play. Meanwhile, the invigorated Saints chased every lost cause and competed for everything. On 46 the disappointing Norgaard got in a decent shot, but unsurprisingly it was straight at the goalkeeper. I don’t know who coaches finishing at our club but they need to raise their game because the teams finishing is atrocious. Half-time 1-0
I fully expected Arteta to make changes at the break but he didn’t and unsurprisingly Arsenal continued to underwhelm showing a distinct lack of penetration. There was nobody with Eze’s ability to do something out of the ordinary.
On 53 Martinelli finally did something unpredictable and went on the outside and delivered a pinpoint cross with his left foot, it eventually fell to Dowman whose shot was blocked. Finally Arteta acted after another 15 minutes had been wasted and on 61 withdrew a below par Lewis-Skelly for Calafiori, Odegaard for Madueke and finally Gyokeres came on for Jesus who I saw described as ‘As much use as a one handed paper hanger’. A minute later Scienza hit the Arsenal bar.
Finally on 68 minutes Big Gabby managed to slide a defence splitting pass through to Havertz and as the German drew the Saints defenders to him he switched the ball to Gyokeres who smashed it home for the equaliser. Now if anyone had been expecting a resurgent Arsenal to sweep Southampton aside from this point then they would have been very disappointed. Big Gabby went down pointing to his knee on 71 minutes and I fear he’ll be a major doubt for Sporting on Tuesday. He was replaced by Saliba and on 79 Havertz was replaced by Zubimendi but his magic has diminished since the first half of the season and no real improvement ensured.
Arsenal continued to labour and despite another side footed effort by Dowman being saved, Southampton discovered new energy and following a good build up on the 85th minute that left Calafiori marking empty space and the centre of our defence all over the place, Southampton scored the winner. After that there was about 12 more minutes including added time but the Arsenal response was fairly feeble and Southampton ran out worthy winners.
So the last two games have provided us with two cup defeats and the potential quad is now an unlikely double. The game at home to Bournemouth next weekend is simply monumental and to me the other games like Sporting are a sideshow. The Premier League is all that counts and Arteta has to somehow relight the fire under his team because this season is in danger of spinning out of control.
We simply have to march on.
By Kev.
Morning Kev, all. Good one and thanks.
My take, I was convinced Arteta was going to try and win this competition after his comments and was pretty cheesed off with his team selection etc etc. However, having slept, he clearly went into this with one intention imo and that was to keep his “first choice” players healthy. I doubt he wanted to bring on Zubimendi, Saliba or Gyokeres, hoping that his players would perform much better, get the rest and then bring on the youngsters.
However, he was badly let down by a number of highly paid players who played like they couldn’t give a toss. Pathetic.
Hope Gabriel’s injury isn’t serious and Dowman was great on the eye. As he matures, he’s only going to get better and better.
Well done Southampton I say, I hope they go on and win the cup.
Morning all, well done Kev under trying circumstances. My son arrived in Lisbon last night, ahead of game. He confirmed just in time in a bar with some Canadian gooners. Not the start to a short break he was hoping for!
I didn’t think they outplayed us even though they outfought us, we had chances but every deflection went wrong side of the post. I’d given Jesus the benefit of the doubt but joining most on here now after such an ineffective performance. Gabriel was good and joint created the goal, please don’t be out again. But we are so predictable with our slow possession build up, why can’t we play any other way? And as I just saw another critic say, does Madueke realise those white lines at the end of the pitch are there for a reason 😂
Could Rice, Timber and Saka not have been subs in case needed, we shall see on Tuesday? Depressing few weeks.
Thanks Kev. Your report reads somewhat differently to the e mail you sent me after the match. I quite liked the succinct version but kudos to you for finding some positives to share with us.
Another fine header photo, Rico. That was a fine Southampton team back in ’76. Mickey Channon and Peter Osgood were both England internationals, Jim McCalliog was a fine midfielder and Bobby Stokes got the goal of his lifetime. After watching City destroy Liverpool I cannot see anyone else lifting the Cup, but I hope this brave Saints team go all the way.
Norgaard was one of Brentford’s best players last season, I think it is the lack of playing time which showed him up, that and the disjointed display of his team mates.
Morning Rico, yes Dowman was the lone shining light in a performance that reminded me of late Wenger team fayre. Martinelli is so predictable that any right back worth his salt can read what he’s going to do, I doubt that we’ll see much more of a couple of yesterday’s other starters this season, pleased to see Madueke back, Arteta almost told us all what he thought of some of our back up players by leaving a 16 year old boy on the field of play for the whole game.
Odegaard brought a sense of control back to our midfield but he failed to find any kind of a pass as Gabriel found to set up Havertz, the Catenacio style employed against us is becoming a real issue. It’s notable that Man City needed a resurgent Haaland hat trick to kill off Liverpool.
There is a bit of me that feels, with the current state of our squad, that one or two Wembley matches is something we can do without.
You summed it up in a nutshell Andrew, Southampton totally outfought us. At times we were embarrassingly lacklustre.
Stuart, I nearly posted the one of us beating Saints in the final but it didn’t feel appropriate 😜
Cheers Andrew, whatever the result I imagine that your son will have an enjoyable time in the capital of Portugal.
Cheers Stu, yes Rico got more of the ‘succinct’ from me on WhatsApp, we all need to blow off steam at times…
I love the FA Cup Kev and would put it above Tuesdays game but that’s just me as an English fan. I realise the CL is a big cash cow which we need but when Barca come along, I think our days would be over even if we get past Sporting.
Imo, more rotation during the season, even if it had been for 10/15 minutes at the end of a game would have kept the players on show last night fitter and more match fit. Expecting anything resembling a cohesive performance from that starting eleven was optimistic imo.
😂 Kev, as did you from me. I was livid with Arteta at the end of the game.
I can’t argue with you on that point Rico, I think that Arteta has again shown a lack of judgement by not employing rotation when the opportunity presented itself in many of the games that we have played since the turn of the year and now we are paying the price with a team that looks knackered and/or completely out of rhythm. But I also feel that our finishing has meant that our Arteta has not always been able to make some of the changes he would’ve liked to make during games because our leads were often too narrow. It all comes down to put in the onion in the basket.
Yes Rico, I could sense that you was a little annoyed. 😉
Good afternoon all.
Some pretty patterns from Odegaard but bugger all else. Nothing of note from Jesus. A bit of dodgy defending from White. A general pack of urgency throughout the team and the game, even in the last knockings, when we were in desperate need of a goal the slow build up from the back was dismal. The one time that Kepa tried a long clearance he put it straight into touch near the halfway line.
The Martinelli booking was ridiculous, the ref, having blown for a foul, stood over the ball preventing Martinelli from taking a quick free kick he nudged the ref out of the way in his eagerness and that was that, yellow card and chance of a quick restart gone.
As I said earlier this morning, we need a a ball winner in midfield, not fancy Dans weaving pretty patterns.
Max Dowman was the pick of the Arsenal players. He must start much more often.
Arsenal Women vs Brighton in F A Cup kicks off a 12.30 live on T N T Sports 1
😂 Kev.
Our finishing is shocking but as Potter mentioned yesterday, Gyokeres scored, but wasn’t utilised after that. Possibly because Havertz went off. Madueke was dreadful, all pace and no delivery.
As for Jesus, I’d rather see Annous on the pitch than him.
Agree re the midfield Cicero, we need another like Eze. Hoping Nwaneri will be that player next season.
I was surprised when Calafiori came on MLS didn’t go into midfield.
Fair play Kev looking for positives and looking forward. I agree the Bournemouth game is massive,I fancy us to get past Sporting Lisbon over 2 games anyway. I can’t see us beating either Barcelona or Atletico on current form.
I’ve had messages from my Chelsea kin about a quadruple bypass. Ho ho I do love the domestic cups but I never thought we would win all 4,that was a media thing,build us up and knock us back down.
Dowman is the only one who comes out with credit,sad situation when we really on a boy who hasn’t even sat his
GCSEs yet.
I thought we struggled in Defence,Midfield and Attack – I never want to see Jesus in the starting line up again. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have to pay him to leave like in the past,might be worth it to get rid.
It feels like we are paying for decisions earlier in the season,you’d think Arteta would have learnt( maybe not )
It’s no good being in great form in September/October.
I just hope we can hang on now.
Spot on Limey. Mind you, I’d fancy us against Atletico if we get that far but I’m pretty sure Barca will dismantle them with ease.
Looks like another cup has gone Arsenal Women two nil down at home to Brighton.
Just seen that too, must be something in the Arsenal water…
Second best in every situation. Other things on their minds perhaps.