EPL | Arsenal v Southampton | 10th of September at 15:00 (GMT)

[Makingtrax]

Been away and missed the game. Just watched the highlights on MOTD.

Nothing changes: still shaky on the counter, bad luck with the rebound off the bar, pundits trying to talk us down . . . . still WE WON!!!!!!!

 

[Ash10]

walk up to the club like what up i got a big coq,
im so pumped i bought some **** from özils shop
ice on caz its so damn frosty
people like damn thats a cold ass kosci.

im celebrating that luckyy win too haard

Stuff of nightmares

 

[SuperGoon]

yes it was you don't get away with it when pulling the shirt like that inside the box.

Anti-Arsenal agenda. Even Wrighty got slated on MOTD for bringing that up.


If it was any of the Manchester Clubs it would be a blatant penalty.

 

[fabo]

If Southampton got a similar penalty, we'd cry that it was a joke. And rightly so. Looked even softer on second viewing on MOTD.

Also despite the praise for some of our defenders, just watched the Long chance again and our CB's were absolutely destroyed in that move. Ian Wright was correct to say he would've snatched up that chance though, bread and butter.

 

[CaseUteinberger]

If Southampton got a similar penalty, we'd cry that it was a joke. And rightly so. Looked even softer on second viewing on MOTD.

Also despite the praise for some of our defenders, just watched the Long chance again and our CB's were absolutely destroyed in that move. Ian Wright was correct to say he would've snatched up that chance though, bread and butter.

Don't agree with you there. That penalty can easily be given. The defender gave the referee enough reasons with the shirt pull and flailing with his legs. Don't at all agree with those who say that this wasn't a penalty by any stretch. I could see it not being given but when it was I felt it enough there to warrant it.

Also don't think our CB's were 'destroyed'. Think they worked well especially given that Mustafa had just one or two practices with the team since joining.

Try to be a bit more positive!

 

[Nyctophobia]

The only thing they can complain about is the ref not blowing the whistle for Kos' head injury beforehand, no question it was a penalty.

 

[Sanchez11]

Right now i dont give a nutsack how we won 3 points is 3 points at this stage. The only thing that pissed me off was the ox the kid clearly needs a loan.

 

[Bould14]

Our team form is dire. We could easily be 3 losses to start the season. There are a handful of players that look physically jaded. Wenger playing with fire hoping his team will be physically fit by October.

 

[Aevi]

yes it was you don't get away with it when pulling the shirt like that inside the box.

To be fair, Fonte lets go and Giroud falls later on in the tussle. Not that I'm saying it's acceptable, but I doubt it was the reason Giroud actually fell.

 

[Mitch]

When it comes to given fouls I have far more lenient opinion on them than most and I am normally quick to point out when Giroud goes down easy looking for a foul (which he does far too often). However when you grab a fistful of shirt and pull it's stonewall penalty as far as I am concerned let alone this season where officials have been told specifically to crack down on it.

Shearer this last season has joined anti Arsenal agenda bandwagon with the likes of Piers Morgan, Adrian Dunham, Neil Ashton, Merson, Owen and Murphy who will look to put a negative spin anything Arsenal related.

 

[Penn_]

Refs are clearly given penalties they wouldn't have last season, it was a perfectly acceptable reason to give one ffs.

 

[logic DC]

we played **** yesterday, we have CB's who are fast and comfortable with the ball and can come up to the midfield also blessed with pace, why the **** weren't we pressing. if you let any team even the worst team in the world if you let them play without being challenged than you simply inviting danger, it was to frustrating to watch if you playing at home you as the home team take the initiative especially when you are arsenal playing at the Emirates. terrible performance that was yesterday.

 

[Lilwizzle]

Strange game yesterday.

The first half was pretty dead bar 5 minutes after brilliance from the Boss. It was raining, slightly cold, the atmosphere was flat and the football was lacking quality throughout. Southampton sat so deep and defended brilliantly, I remember counting a 6 man back like at times

Second half was a real game of football, spaces appeared, Cazorla started tricking, Özil started flicking, Giroud started slipping and the game got real end to end at times, chances at both sides. Great atmosphere when Caz got the pen, we started signing his name before he even scored it, confidence was that high. An underlying feeling of relief more than anything.

Perez looked like he had never lead the line in English football before(big shock), kept on trying to link with players that weren't there. Seems like an intelligent player in terms of movement, needs to adjust his linkup in the final third which no doubt comes with time.

Mustafi looked rash but commited, a young German Koscielny if I ever saw one.

Shout out to the Boss, Santi and all three of our subs, our front 4 at the end of the game should be first choice for a while.

 

[FreakySami]

Also despite the praise for some of our defenders, just watched the Long chance again and our CB's were absolutely destroyed in that move. Ian Wright was correct to say he would've snatched up that chance though, bread and butter.

Wrong. It was nacho monreals player, he didn't stay with him.

we played **** yesterday, we have CB's who are fast and comfortable with the ball and can come up to the midfield also blessed with pace, why the **** weren't we pressing. if you let any team even the worst team in the world if you let them play without being challenged than you simply inviting danger, it was to frustrating to watch if you playing at home you as the home team take the initiative especially when you are arsenal playing at the Emirates. terrible performance that was yesterday.

we did to a certain extent, but you cannot do that over 90 minutes, it's impossible physically, that's why players wern't always pressing 100% of the time. We actually tracked back all game except for 1-2 times. We played well defensively except that brain fart from monreal who let shane long go in alone.

It seems to me that people do not want to see that we actually have good defense, counter attack but we lack that killer mentality. I think in future games when we are up 1-0 or 2-0, we will bring on perez for the counter attack. We sit and counter and finish games off like that.

Remember, there are many ways to defend, through possession, through the high press , half way line press, deep, high line with high press and i'm missing many more, but in general when you gain possesion of the ball and go on the counter, that's where we need to be more clinical, we need to take those chances. We need to scare opponents. If we would do that and combine it with a good initial possession display and score early, we would scare every team.

Teams that are high possession would hate playing against us (aka barca, man city, bayern, etc) because we would just sit deep and counter and we could also keep possession.

Teams who sit deep and rely on set pieces would also be afraid of the counter (since our defense is actually good).

Teams who sit deep and just want to frustrate us, those ones, you either learn to play through them OR if we were amazing at the high press, you launch the ball in the opposition half for a throwing, then press them and win the ball high up the field. Because of the throwing, they would be out of shape and it would give us that small window to win the ball high up the field.

Anyways, the game was not conclusive at all, we came back from an international break and still got the 3 points and did well. I think we will be ready for PSG on tuesday !

 

[logic DC]

Wrong. It was nacho monreals player, he didn't stay with him.



we did to a certain extent, but you cannot do that over 90 minutes, it's impossible physically, that's why players wern't always pressing 100% of the time. We actually tracked back all game except for 1-2 times. We played well defensively except that brain fart from monreal who let shane long go in alone.

It seems to me that people do not want to see that we actually have good defense, counter attack but we lack that killer mentality. I think in future games when we are up 1-0 or 2-0, we will bring on perez for the counter attack. We sit and counter and finish games off like that.

Remember, there are many ways to defend, through possession, through the high press , half way line press, deep, high line with high press and i'm missing many more, but in general when you gain possesion of the ball and go on the counter, that's where we need to be more clinical, we need to take those chances. We need to scare opponents. If we would do that and combine it with a good initial possession display and score early, we would scare every team.

Teams that are high possession would hate playing against us (aka barca, man city, bayern, etc) because we would just sit deep and counter and we could also keep possession.

Teams who sit deep and rely on set pieces would also be afraid of the counter (since our defense is actually good).

Teams who sit deep and just want to frustrate us, those ones, you either learn to play through them OR if we were amazing at the high press, you launch the ball in the opposition half for a throwing, then press them and win the ball high up the field. Because of the throwing, they would be out of shape and it would give us that small window to win the ball high up the field.

Anyways, the game was not conclusive at all, we came back from an international break and still got the 3 points and did well. I think we will be ready for PSG on tuesday !

but surely for at least the first 30 minutes you should be pressing alot and to stop the away team from playing and getting into their grove. for the first 10 minutes we did not press, at least collectively ant that allowed Southampton to feel comfortable. yes you can't press for 90 min but at least try with in the first 30. we were lucky yesterday.

 

[Nyctophobia]

We gave away some easy chances yesterday, result could have easily been a 2-3 loss for us, despite that I thought this back four looked far better than anything we saw last season, I hope we'll continue to improve our defense.

Disappointed with how rigid we are at times during the game, no movement, everyone standing around waiting for something to happen rather than trying to start things off the ball, sloppiness in the final third...

Expect better than this from us, we need to do better.

 

[bingobob]

It's a foul all day long. Clear cut and dry. The only reason it could not be considered a penalty is because we've become so acclimatised to this "outside the box a foul all day long". Someone show me where the rule book states that. It's a farce made up to protect refs.

Anyway we won and got three much needed vital points. With City, Liverpool and Sp**s all winning we need to just keep putting the points on the board.

 

[Steve D]

Afternoon all. I'm sure you can imagine how us Saints fans are feeling.

I feel like a draw would have been a fair result. You pretty much dominated the second half, but failed to test Forster at all really. We couldn't attack for toffee and when we could Long couldn't take the chances.
Whatever your feelings on the penalty/foul on Long at the other end, the ref should have stopped the game due to the head injury. Could really have been dangerous as all the players were up there and it was a mental goal mouth scramble. And it was a nasty boot to the face Kos took.
As it is, we come away with a loss but optimism for the season, first half was probably the best we have played this season, and first 20 we deserved the lead I thought. I still stand by my earlier comments, you'll be top 4 and we will have to wait until Boufal is fit before our season really starts.

 

[Reverse Flash]

It wasnt a head injury though, it was a foot injury and he started play acting to draw attention. He has done it all his career, high time he paid for acting like a ****.

 

[Makingtrax]

If Southampton got a similar penalty, we'd cry that it was a joke. And rightly so. Looked even softer on second viewing on MOTD.

Also despite the praise for some of our defenders, just watched the Long chance again and our CB's were absolutely destroyed in that move. Ian Wright was correct to say he would've snatched up that chance though, bread and butter.

The refs made a big thing about clamping down on shirt pulling in the box this year. He pulled Giroud's shirt, no question, and then flayed about with his legs. Stone-wall penalty by the rules. The fact that some refs are still not giving them is hardly Giroud's fault.

I'd only be saying that was a soft penalty if I was a Southampton supporter through frustration. Any of our fans saying it ought to f*** off and support another team.