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.