Southampton vs Arsenal - 1/1/2013 17:30 Sky Sports 1

[GOONER1991]

Disgrace from the team today, I guess it's back to the same old. There are genuinely some players in this squad who are definitely not fit to wear the shirt.

Big points dropped today, completely bottled it with Sp**s, United and City winning. Terrific, I guess it's back to the same old. Very angry at that result. Hopefully will lead to some signings... who am I kidding?

 

[Vinci]

We need some true ****ing leaders in the team to motivate and organise the team when things aren't working, because obviously Wenger won't.

Who will tell Sagna to pick himself up in a game like he had today? No one... and so he continued being poor for the entire game.

Vermaelen doesn't even have a hundredth of the leadership skills Adams or Vieira had. It's been like this for years now; crumbling once we get in the lead, unable to force a winner against a ****ing relegation team.

 

[Kwaku]

This team is so poor without the ball it is unreal. Arteta cannot be the best defender in the midfield, it just simply cannot work.

 

[a_fourteen]

another stinker from sagna. i think we need carlo back in until bac sorts himself out. and while we are at it how about giving arteta a break and playing coquelin for a few games?

 

[Airknight]

Watched a replay and for all the stick we gave Sagna Gibbs was worse by quite a margin, countless mistakes.

 

[arsenalfc0719]

Wenger really doesn't know how to use his squad. I would like to see Rosicky and Giroud start or atleast get some minutes in the second half.

But we already know that Wenger is going to stick in Ramsey (for no sporting reasons), Gerv and Giroud. And Rosicky who has looked bright since his return in the little we've seen of him wont see any minutes. Same old from Wenger.

I don't see an easy game at all. Smells like a draw.

And if we're winning when and IF if decides to introduce Ramsey or Giroud, what normal person would honestly give a toss? Talk about a premature, pointless moan... He's using the same team that scored 7 in the week; a team that had previously had a whole WEEKS rest. It's called 'continuity', and not tinkering for the sake of it.

Wenger is so predictable its amazing. On match days he's really clueless making subs or tactical changes to the team. Giroud, Gerv, Ramsey... it was so obvious he would make those changes even though Ramsey and Gerv have never offered us anything coming off the bench this season.

As for the result, it was also predictable. We win a couple matches agains't poor out of sorts opposition and Wenger, the players and some fans get exited and start talking the talk... then this.

Story of our season until the end were we tragically end up 4th in the league and Wenger claims he's done magic with "what he has".

I'm sick of it. Our team lacks so much quality its blatant for anyone to see, but Wenger is a stubborn blind man who won't add what we need to the team and in recent years can't even get tactics, subs or team selection right.

 

[DontPushMe]

Watched a replay and for all the stick we gave Sagna Gibbs was worse by quite a margin, countless mistakes.

Disagree. I thought Gibbs was one of our best players along with szczesny. Who scored gave him motm too.

 

[Airknight]

Always late for everything, Southampton ran riot on that side the whole second half. Only gets motm because some irrelevant tackles at the end, but Sagna was just more involved with everything despite some amateurish mistakes and that pathetic clearance.

Gibbs was the sole reason a nothing player like Puncheon was a threat today.

 

[Brett]

we lost due to lack of creativity yes..........but where was the effort??

85 mins gone i would like to see my team throwing the kitchen sink instead they stroll around playing back passes.........it is this attitude that worries me the most.

if not for the posponed match wenger would have complained about fatigue.

Secondly wenger's in ablity to admit certain things...... we all know that santi was tired it was evident in the game against newcastle, why not play rosicky or atleast bring him on in the second half?


players need to feel the need to fight for their places.......sagna had a poor game but you will still find him starting the next game.

the loss of offensive fludity is it because of Pat rice's departure? all these years we used to waste chances but yesterday was there even a shot on target?

did we get the tactics wrong by playing theo alone upfornt with our goalkeeper finding it difficult to find a target for his kicks,
or are we desperate?........ have we stooped so low? for convincing a player to stay, theo scored a hatrick the previous match and deserved to retain his place no doubt but why not change things when not working out.....ox in my opinion atleast was having a better game than theo.

the next set of fixtures will be a true test of our credentials as a top four team....

mancity chelsea and livepool i think this might be the first year in many when we see our team in europa league.

And no i am not a pessimist.

 

[a_fourteen]

seen more back passes already this season than in all other seasons combined. speaks of a midfield problem.

 

[HollandGooner]

The players seem lack of concentration when receiving the ball and understanding teammates' movement. The off-ball players not giving enough support. Too many 50-50 balls were given away cheaply. The momentum was interrupted constantly.

Ok the pitch was slippery but that doesn't stop the ball from moving forward. So why the players played with a handbrake on? Jack couldn't dribble past his marker cleanly and Santi chose not to shoot. The only player did well was Arteta.

Will the 4th place be at the end of the tunnel in May? (sigh)

It is frustrating isnt it? half of the team are full internationals..

 

[HollandGooner]

Apart from Gibbs and Szczesny the rest of the team was awful.

I thought Gibbs was constantly getting caugh easily.

 

[23AndreyArshavin]

Whole team was awful, 1 shot on target against Southampton is embarrassing.

Poor.

 

[arsmile]

was rubbish

sagna was pathetic...has he already signed for a PL team and was on a sabotage mission?

The ramsey/gervinho subs removed any remnants of hope that remained through some miracle . Ramsey is jsut literally nothing. and gernvinho looked like he had never played football before, he just gets worse and worse.

 

[clockwork orange]

On the complacency. Arsenal's management has been complacent for a few years now. It's natural this brushes off on the team and the rest of the club (including fans).

Complacent performances happen at all clubs, even the well run ones. The Mancs going down in a lot of matches is also partly caused by it. Because they have better players and their complacency is less endemic they can make up for it.

 

[Glovegun]

Gibbs was the sole reason a nothing player like Puncheon was a threat today.

I don't think that's true at all. Puncheon is quite a tricky customer. Never easy playing a winger who can go both ways. That's what makes Chamberlain so good. He can take you on the outside and whip a ball in or cut inside and shoot.

Gibbs was poor against Newcastle but fine against Southampton.

For me, the biggest issue is that without Mertesacker the defence look like completely at sea. Koscielny just doesn't talk enough, simple as that.

 

[dave_rwr]

Most of Gibbs' issues against Southampton were positional so they were harder to notice. When Gibbs was positioned well or on the ball, I thought he did quite well and there were definitely times where he seemed like he was one of the only players putting in any sort of effort. The real problem was that there were so many times when he was either too far up-field or too far in-field to cut out the balls he should have been cutting out.

 

[goonerwarsh]

Whole team was awful, 1 shot on target against Southampton is embarrassing.

Poor.

What I don't understand is it's not like we haven't seen this type of game 100 times over from this team. Why doesn't Wenger at the end of the first half think, 'right, that was an awful first half, we didn't muster one clear cut chance...simply not good enough' and make changes. Go 4-4-2, change the system, be unpredictable. The players had their chance, they had 45 minutes and it was clear they weren't producing. So be proactive, do something different. Why sit there for 90 minutes and watch your team serve up such a poor excuse of a performance. Can you just imagine United going to Southampton and not producing one clear cut opportunity? It may happen once or twice a season but you can be sure as god gave us green apples that Ferguson wouldn't let it keep happening.

When is this club going to wake up and restore a bit of pride in itself and the way it is performing on the football pitch?

 

[MaestroCesc]

the loss of offensive fludity is it because of Pat rice's departure? all these years we used to waste chances but yesterday was there even a shot on target?

No, before we had much better players, but now we still have good players but if it doesnt work we have no one to bring off the bench to change it. We lack a really exceptional player in Cesc and RVP. Bringing Ramsey and Gervinho off the bench just isnt good enough when we need a goal, having said that Giroud was also extremely poor.

 

[eye4goal]

The team needs to be better at attacking space. There was plenty of this kind of situation in the first half where Sagna passes it to Chamberlain and stops. The space is there no one makes the run(Cazorla is coming short whilst Walcott is planted between the CBs)



There's another one a minute earlier. Chamberlain(circled) wants the ball played into space but Sagna elects to pass it short and out of play. We really need a FB who could contribute more in attack