PL: Southampton vs Arsenal | December 16, 2018 13:30 GMT | Sky Sports

[Dregen57]

Big big disappointment for me. Big shame conceding 3 goals to a relegation team.

 

[Maybe]

I would like to understand the logic of this mastermind Emery. We didn't have any CB's today except of Kos, and what our mastermind does is inviting pressure on our back 3 while knowing none of them can deal with crosses?!

I could go into a local pub and ask the first drunk guy what to do and he would tell me that Arsenal should go with the high back line in which Koscienly played majority of his career, partner him with Monreal who has pace and some experience as CB under Wenger, play AMN as a makeshift LB and go with stability in midfield with Xhaka, Douzi and Torreira. Go with high pressure as they proved that they can't deal with it and play both Laca and Auba as they only function when they play together, this approach would also move Kos more up the field where he can win balls and even if he doesn't they don't have quick forwards to punish our high back line.
Instead of 3 broken lines we would have only one broken and they would be high up the field that we wouldn't even notice that.

Absolute poverty of management and complete lack of creativity with the resources available.

 

[Mrs Bergkamp]

Just poor . Cant blame him though so many wrong things about that goal.

Very true. But Allison, Ederson, DDG do better in that situation as does a young Cech or Seaman or Lukic. Sorry. I'm just annoyed.

 

[Sniper Mik]

Pool will finish in the top 4 whether they win or lose today. It's Sp**s or Chelsea that we have to catch.
For all the talk of Sp**s dropping off due to a thin squad, we seem to be the ones with the thin squad now.

They have a thin squad. It's just not apparent yet because they played two home games against Southampton and Burnley. They played two left backs in defence and had an 18 year in CM last night. Had they played with that lineup against Everton away, which is their next btw they probably would have lost that.

 

[MLK79]

If someone looked up the Top 3 passing combinations for us today it'll probably mostly involve the players in the back 3 and Torreira. Just zero penetration through the middle, constantly forced back to eventually go long. It was a tricky call for Emery tbf. Either go with a back 5 for more defensive security because of the personnel or play an extra man in the middle and push the opposition back with controlled possession and leave yourself slightly light at the back. Hindsight is 20/20 but he chose wrong today.

Defensive security? We had conceded 20 goals in 16 games before today. Any notion that we would have defensive security is a pipe dream. Emery should've gone with a strong midfield to give us the best chance of winning that match.

 

[Beast Incarnate]

What has happened to Iwobi? He's gone back to the familiar Iwobi we've seen the last couple of years. Just totally ineffective.

Also, I'm trying to think of a player that misses as many one-on-one chances as Auba. I've lost count the amount of chances he's missed this season. Laca hasn't exactly been up to much either, and we need both firing if we're going to make top 4.

 

[HBL]

Yes, we have quality going forward, but not quite enough.

We drew at home to Wolves, scraped past Huddersfield at home, drew at home to Pool. In all these games our defence was sturdy enough- problem is we struggled to create chances due to our lack of quality width.

Our goal return is flattering. A lot of our goals have come in spurts, like against Fulham or Leicester. Unlike Citeh and Liverpool who control games and score at pretty much any time.

Pool have Mane and Salah. Citeh have Sterling and Sane. Chelski have Hazard and Willian. Spuds have Son and Moura. Heck, even Yanited have Martial.

Those are all explosive wide players. They can turn a game with a bit of trickery and pace. That’s a luxury we do not have. Our defence is pants but we’re an attacking team- we should be blowing **** teams away.

No point comparing us to City, we're never going to have the attacking options they have. Firmino and Mane have been below average most of the season, any Liverpool fan will tell you that. Why are they so far above us? Because they haven't conceded more than once in any game this season.

Same with Sp**s, they don't concede many against teams outside of the top 6 and that's why they're 5 points above us. 3 clean sheets in 17 games is a terrible record for a top side.

Not even a debate for me, a £50m cb would be far more important than a £50m winger.

We've scored 37 goals in 17 games, with Özil playing poorly in the majority of them and Lacazette regularly picking up little knocks preventing him from building a proper relationship with Auba.
Plus we've scored at least two goals in 12/17 games, where as Liverpool have in 10/16. We're conceding too many goals with one of the best dm's in the league.

 

[field442]

Still fuming at the lineup. Kos and Monreal are an established partnership. AMN has regularly played at left back. WHY THE **** would you play a back 3 with Lichtsteiner and Xhaka either side of Koscielny? Why would you continue to play Iwobi when he hasn’t had a decent game for 6-8 weeks? Going back further, why would you change formation when we had won 12 games on the spin and gone something like 18 unbeaten?

I don’t really want to moan because we’ve gone on a good run but he has been getting plaudits for his substitutions when the fact of the matter is for the most part it was because his team selections have been awful.

 

[Gooner Zig]

Enough with the revisionism on Auba - he's world class and deadly.

If you watch other elite strikers they miss countless opportunities, it's a weekly occurrence. If Auba scored all of his chances he'd be a 50+ goal per season striker, he just gets into a ridiculously amount of good positions.

Aguero is of the same ilk - scores for fun but also misses a tonne of chances.

 

[celestis]

Very true. But Allison, Ederson, DDG do better in that situation as does a young Cech or Seaman or Lukic. Sorry. I'm just annoyed.

Cech is still a better conventional keeper than Leno for sure . Leno's bad judge on crosses , premiership knows that now .

 

[Camus]

Don't get me wrong I'm still not convinced on Leno and he's got a lot of deficiencies in him as well as the potential for more than a few mistakes. But on that goal it was the completely disarray and lack faith in his defenders that precipitated it. He's seen his team fail to defend two very straight forward crosses, and on that corner that leg to the Long chance being ruled out for offside, he's had to make a great save from another cross and header by Yoshida. He's intelligent enough to see that was a massive weakness for us all game and he's tried to take matters into his own hands. Judging by how they've dealt with the other crosses Leno has no guarantee that Austin isn't going to take that down and lash it in. Unfortunately his execution was shocking and he's flapped it.

Obviously it's his mistake, but if we'd had a confident defence then he wouldn't have felt that need to do that.

 

[Taylor Gang Gunners]

Not even a debate for me.

Sound.

 

[ksarp]

Keane ripping Leno for having a friendly chat with Austin after the game about his howler. Deservedly so too. You've been ****e today bar 1 save, cost us our unbeaten run and are having a laugh? Get in the **** in the changing room mate.

Another old school guy oblivious to today’s culture. Kids today can go out and compete hard against each other and then play fortnight or whatever . Some of these kids form friendships in sports camps .

He was lost in the game during the time he was on and it would have been the same if he had started.

I vehemently disagree. The lack of pass rush from Aubameyang causing offensive stagnation was nauseating..

 

[Mrs Bergkamp]

Cech is still a better conventional keeper than Leno for sure . Leno's bad judge on crosses , premiership knows that now .

I think the whole of Europe knows that now

 

[2Smokeyy]

Some have been waiting for a result like this to have a moan.

Robbie is licking his lips.

 

[Gooner Zig]

A proper winger is seriously needed. We create pretty sh*te chances.

The only way we can create chances is by passing or counter attacks and even our counters are feeble because we have no real forwards who can carry the ball at pace against back tracking defenders.

Look at our results this year, we really struggle to beat teams that we really should be blowing away because they are organised and there are serious limits to passing, we need to be able to suck defenders out of position.

Zaha in this team would be dynamite.

 

[Camron]

We conceded three headers.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Even with Torreira Leno Sok addition we still conceded average of 2 goals a game and that's not good enough and mean it's system and teamwork problem rather than the players we have to sort it out

 

[2Smokeyy]

Cech is still a better conventional keeper than Leno for sure . Leno's bad judge on crosses , premiership knows that now .

Leno is going to be targeted now just like De Gea was in his first season. Watch teams put a player on him and try outmuscle him on corners.

 

[celestis]

The only way we can create chances is by passing or counter attacks and even our counters are feeble because we have no real forwards who can carry the ball at pace against back tracking defenders.

Look at our results this year, we really struggle to beat teams that we really should be blowing away because they are organised and there are serious limits to passing, we need to be able to suck defenders out of position.

Zaha in this team would be dynamite.

Lookman mate , he's sensational .