Who's Our Best Striker?
I used to find that the international breaks were a real
pain. England would jet off and play two European non-entities and usually do
enough to get the job done and it would be dull and I would miss not having an
upcoming Saints game to think about. How times change. England still went and
smashed two football non-entities but no match for Southampton has been a
blessed relief. I haven’t checked but I probably wrote something very similar
at the last international break.
Still, there has always been Twitter to keep us entertained. The less said about some of it the better but I did put a question out there about the fact that we don’t appear to have many people in key positions that you would normally associate with a Premier League football club. Les Reed and Ross Wilson have left and not been replaced so we have no Director of Football type and no Head of Recruitment type. Lots has been made about the fact that Ralph doesn’t appear to have anyone to talk to on the sideline and therefore no Assistant Manager. Richard Kitzbichler is listed as a ‘first-team assistant coach’ on the official website, which is the same title Dave Watson and Kelvin Davis have got. I know this is probably semantics but the term ‘first team coach’, implies to me someone who designs and takes training sessions, whereas the term “assistant first team coach“ implies the good old BBC - balls, bibs and cones and not a lot else. On top of that, Radhi Jaidi going to America has left us with a temporary Under 23s manager, which dovetails nicely with the temporary Under 18s manager that we have. Is this Saints doing their usual and trying to be ahead of the game and slightly edgy and different or is it the size of a club that really doesn’t know where it’s going or what the structure should be. Just seems to me that having this uncertainty whilst the season is going on, is a slightly bizarre way to go about things. My tweet was discussed at length on the Southampton Dellivery Podcast by Matt Markstone and Carl Anka, the Saints reporter from The Athletic. It is of course a more informed view with Carl having some degree of access to the club. A link to the podcast is here
Still, there has always been Twitter to keep us entertained. The less said about some of it the better but I did put a question out there about the fact that we don’t appear to have many people in key positions that you would normally associate with a Premier League football club. Les Reed and Ross Wilson have left and not been replaced so we have no Director of Football type and no Head of Recruitment type. Lots has been made about the fact that Ralph doesn’t appear to have anyone to talk to on the sideline and therefore no Assistant Manager. Richard Kitzbichler is listed as a ‘first-team assistant coach’ on the official website, which is the same title Dave Watson and Kelvin Davis have got. I know this is probably semantics but the term ‘first team coach’, implies to me someone who designs and takes training sessions, whereas the term “assistant first team coach“ implies the good old BBC - balls, bibs and cones and not a lot else. On top of that, Radhi Jaidi going to America has left us with a temporary Under 23s manager, which dovetails nicely with the temporary Under 18s manager that we have. Is this Saints doing their usual and trying to be ahead of the game and slightly edgy and different or is it the size of a club that really doesn’t know where it’s going or what the structure should be. Just seems to me that having this uncertainty whilst the season is going on, is a slightly bizarre way to go about things. My tweet was discussed at length on the Southampton Dellivery Podcast by Matt Markstone and Carl Anka, the Saints reporter from The Athletic. It is of course a more informed view with Carl having some degree of access to the club. A link to the podcast is here
https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-zmi9v-c80e11
And it’s worth a listen. I’ll let you make your own mind up as to whether we’re a shambles or not.
Ralph’s press conference before the Arsenal game was good as he said that he has all the players available to play the system that he wants to play in the game against Arsenal. This, I would assume, means that Ryan Bertrand is going to come straight back into the team and there will be no players trying to play a new position for the first time in the rarefied atmosphere of the Premier League. Shane Long for right wingback anyone? Hopefully the spirit of George Burley can stay in the bottle where it belongs.
If we’ve been a bit of a shambles this season then Arsenal have been one as well in relative terms. I mean, they are still hanging around the top five or six of the league and their very entitled fan base have absolutely no fucking idea what struggle is about. The team is of course going through a transitional phase with Wenger having left after so long and it’s exactly the same as when Ferguson left Manchester United. Whoever comes in has got to put his own imprint on things and try and change things and of course, fans of the big clubs have absolutely no patience whatsoever. Unai Emery seems to have a decent collection of youngsters to bring through and they have some good attacking players of course but The defence is quite frankly, no better than ours and we are not going to be troubling the top four any time soon. Emery also made a rod for his own back by appointing Granit Xhaka as captain when the Arsenal faithful already hated him. For the record, I think Xhaka is a decent player but the Gooners don’t and this became a problem when he was substituted a couple weeks back and the substitution was cheered then he was booed as he slowly crawled off of the pitch telling everyone and anyone to fuck off. My opinion is that you don’t boo any player who is wearing the shirt, even if you really do not rate them (and even if they are Cedric Soares) so I’m on team Xhaka for this one Especially when it was revealed the extent of the horrific messages he had been sent on social media, even before the latest incident.
Still, any toxic atmosphere at the Emirates today can only help us. In fact it will make a bit of a change for there to be any noise at all at the Emirates with it being the sort of ground where usually you can hear a Gooner fart at the other end of the ground, unless it’s in the immediate aftermath of Arsenal scoring. The chances are that with Aubameyang , Lacazette and Pepe in their side, we are not going to keep a clean sheet today so we have to go for it a bit and play on the fact that they have Calum Chambers, David Luiz and Sokratis playing in defence. It’s not hard to work out where the weak area is.
Just up the road from Arsenal of course is Tottenham where Murchio Pochettino has just been sacked. It took a lot longer than I thought it would and he has had much more success than I thought he would at Tottenham but after five years, it had gone stale there and having over achieved massively in reaching a Champions League Final, he was never going to be able to repeat that this season without some very major investment which Daniel Levy was never going to give him. Mauricio has got out of Spurs with his reputation enhanced and will be in the conversation when the likes of Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Paris St Germain decide to dispense with the present incumbent.
Back to today and our line-up is announced with much teeth gnashing and abuse and #RalphOut. I suspect that the majority of these people don’t think before they start angrily smashing at the keyboard. Arsenal’s weakness is susceptibility against pace at the back which explains why Obafemi had been picked. In midfield, Romeu had been left out to accommodate Armstrong. Oriol is a bit unlucky to be the one who missed out but one out of JWP, Hojbjerg and himself had to go. At the back, it’s a back four and includes the two centre backs who have been in the best form, namely Jack Stephens and Jan Bednarek.
Arsenal have a world-class forward line in Aubameyang and Lacazette , an average midfield in Terreira, Ozil and Guendouzi and a shit defence, containing as it does, David Luiz , Calum Chambers and Sokraris. Chambers is apparently having the longest run that he’s ever had in the Arsenal first time in five years. This proves that they have finally come down to his level.
Unlike our last game at home to Everton, we start on the front foot and Armstrong tries a potshot in the first minute which doesn’t trouble Leno. The effect though is that is saus straight away that we’re going to have a go. Thirty seconds to have more shots than in the first half against Everton.
A positive start and then Calum Chambers decides not to bother defending and just bodychecks Redmond out of the way. Ryan Bertrand grabs the ball and quickly knocks the free-kick through to Danny Ings whilst Arsenal are not looking. Ings just go straight for goal, draws the keeper and knocks it into the net off of the near post to put us 1-0 up. Unbelievable and what is this sorcery? A brilliant bit of play by Bertrend and Ings and 84 minutes to hang on.
We have negotiated about 10 of the 84 but Arsenal have worked out to attack down our right because we don’t have anyone defending there. We nominally have Cedric at right back but he’s nowhere near Tierney who puts his cross into the box and finds Aubameyang. He brings it down and hits it and Bertrand chucks himself in the way but it bounces to Lacazette who turns sharply and smashes it into the net, giving no one a prayer of getting in the way. Bollocks, well that didn’t last long.
And it’s worth a listen. I’ll let you make your own mind up as to whether we’re a shambles or not.
Ralph’s press conference before the Arsenal game was good as he said that he has all the players available to play the system that he wants to play in the game against Arsenal. This, I would assume, means that Ryan Bertrand is going to come straight back into the team and there will be no players trying to play a new position for the first time in the rarefied atmosphere of the Premier League. Shane Long for right wingback anyone? Hopefully the spirit of George Burley can stay in the bottle where it belongs.
If we’ve been a bit of a shambles this season then Arsenal have been one as well in relative terms. I mean, they are still hanging around the top five or six of the league and their very entitled fan base have absolutely no fucking idea what struggle is about. The team is of course going through a transitional phase with Wenger having left after so long and it’s exactly the same as when Ferguson left Manchester United. Whoever comes in has got to put his own imprint on things and try and change things and of course, fans of the big clubs have absolutely no patience whatsoever. Unai Emery seems to have a decent collection of youngsters to bring through and they have some good attacking players of course but The defence is quite frankly, no better than ours and we are not going to be troubling the top four any time soon. Emery also made a rod for his own back by appointing Granit Xhaka as captain when the Arsenal faithful already hated him. For the record, I think Xhaka is a decent player but the Gooners don’t and this became a problem when he was substituted a couple weeks back and the substitution was cheered then he was booed as he slowly crawled off of the pitch telling everyone and anyone to fuck off. My opinion is that you don’t boo any player who is wearing the shirt, even if you really do not rate them (and even if they are Cedric Soares) so I’m on team Xhaka for this one Especially when it was revealed the extent of the horrific messages he had been sent on social media, even before the latest incident.
Still, any toxic atmosphere at the Emirates today can only help us. In fact it will make a bit of a change for there to be any noise at all at the Emirates with it being the sort of ground where usually you can hear a Gooner fart at the other end of the ground, unless it’s in the immediate aftermath of Arsenal scoring. The chances are that with Aubameyang , Lacazette and Pepe in their side, we are not going to keep a clean sheet today so we have to go for it a bit and play on the fact that they have Calum Chambers, David Luiz and Sokratis playing in defence. It’s not hard to work out where the weak area is.
Just up the road from Arsenal of course is Tottenham where Murchio Pochettino has just been sacked. It took a lot longer than I thought it would and he has had much more success than I thought he would at Tottenham but after five years, it had gone stale there and having over achieved massively in reaching a Champions League Final, he was never going to be able to repeat that this season without some very major investment which Daniel Levy was never going to give him. Mauricio has got out of Spurs with his reputation enhanced and will be in the conversation when the likes of Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Paris St Germain decide to dispense with the present incumbent.
Back to today and our line-up is announced with much teeth gnashing and abuse and #RalphOut. I suspect that the majority of these people don’t think before they start angrily smashing at the keyboard. Arsenal’s weakness is susceptibility against pace at the back which explains why Obafemi had been picked. In midfield, Romeu had been left out to accommodate Armstrong. Oriol is a bit unlucky to be the one who missed out but one out of JWP, Hojbjerg and himself had to go. At the back, it’s a back four and includes the two centre backs who have been in the best form, namely Jack Stephens and Jan Bednarek.
Arsenal have a world-class forward line in Aubameyang and Lacazette , an average midfield in Terreira, Ozil and Guendouzi and a shit defence, containing as it does, David Luiz , Calum Chambers and Sokraris. Chambers is apparently having the longest run that he’s ever had in the Arsenal first time in five years. This proves that they have finally come down to his level.
Unlike our last game at home to Everton, we start on the front foot and Armstrong tries a potshot in the first minute which doesn’t trouble Leno. The effect though is that is saus straight away that we’re going to have a go. Thirty seconds to have more shots than in the first half against Everton.
A positive start and then Calum Chambers decides not to bother defending and just bodychecks Redmond out of the way. Ryan Bertrand grabs the ball and quickly knocks the free-kick through to Danny Ings whilst Arsenal are not looking. Ings just go straight for goal, draws the keeper and knocks it into the net off of the near post to put us 1-0 up. Unbelievable and what is this sorcery? A brilliant bit of play by Bertrend and Ings and 84 minutes to hang on.
We have negotiated about 10 of the 84 but Arsenal have worked out to attack down our right because we don’t have anyone defending there. We nominally have Cedric at right back but he’s nowhere near Tierney who puts his cross into the box and finds Aubameyang. He brings it down and hits it and Bertrand chucks himself in the way but it bounces to Lacazette who turns sharply and smashes it into the net, giving no one a prayer of getting in the way. Bollocks, well that didn’t last long.
We actually play quite well for the rest of the first half,
carrying a threat when we go forward and actually knocking the ball around
nicely. JWP and Hojbjerg are ruling the midfield
area where Ozil is of course not tracking anyone and the twat with the hair is
just trying to kick people. It doesn’t
take long before any decision in our favour sees Arsenal surrounding the
referee, usually led by Lacazette who seems to run to get involved in every
discussion regardless of whether he’s involved or not. Fuck off you twat.
Half time and we’ve been decent. Entitled Arsenal fans boo their team off because they aren’t beating this bottom of the league shite. Emery’s fix is for poor old Arsenal to bring on their £72 million winger and take off the liability that is Calum Chambers so he can spend the rest of the game sizing up his January loan move to the Championship.
Half time and we’ve been decent. Entitled Arsenal fans boo their team off because they aren’t beating this bottom of the league shite. Emery’s fix is for poor old Arsenal to bring on their £72 million winger and take off the liability that is Calum Chambers so he can spend the rest of the game sizing up his January loan move to the Championship.
Arsenal d start the second half the strong and Pepe breaks
away on our right but luckily he chooses the wrong option and tries to find a
colleague rather than go straight for goal and shoot and Bednarek gets back to
pull off a last ditch block. Can’t
belive they keep attacking down our right as we have a Euro Champion over
there. Dunno where he was mind you –
must have had something better to do. For
our part, we’re keeping them honest and still finding space to attack and Redmond
drives forward and just when you wanted his to reproduce his Fratton finish, he
smashes it just over the bar.
Unbelievably, Arsenal attack down our right again and Tierney unbelievably has no full back anywhere near him and picks out Pepe with a cross and the substitute attempts a scissor volley and smashes it down and up and onto the bar and out. Living dangerously now.
After the initial worrying 15 minutes at the start of this half we begin to play well again, finding our way into the Arsenal half with ease. Despite having taken Chambers off, Arsenal are still appallingly shit at the back and David Luiz gives the ball to Sokratis who thinks he’s Franz Beckenbauer all of a sudden and tries to take on Cedric who is loitering in the penalty area after our last attack. Cedric does brilliantly to nick the ball of him and with Sokratis on the deck, Leno covering the near post and Obafemi stood 6 yards out in front of the empty net, all Cedric needs to do his roll it along the ground about 5 yards. So what does our Euro Champion do? I mean, we know he can’t defend for shit but that article in the Guardian said he had phenomenal crossing so what does he do?
Unbelievably, Arsenal attack down our right again and Tierney unbelievably has no full back anywhere near him and picks out Pepe with a cross and the substitute attempts a scissor volley and smashes it down and up and onto the bar and out. Living dangerously now.
After the initial worrying 15 minutes at the start of this half we begin to play well again, finding our way into the Arsenal half with ease. Despite having taken Chambers off, Arsenal are still appallingly shit at the back and David Luiz gives the ball to Sokratis who thinks he’s Franz Beckenbauer all of a sudden and tries to take on Cedric who is loitering in the penalty area after our last attack. Cedric does brilliantly to nick the ball of him and with Sokratis on the deck, Leno covering the near post and Obafemi stood 6 yards out in front of the empty net, all Cedric needs to do his roll it along the ground about 5 yards. So what does our Euro Champion do? I mean, we know he can’t defend for shit but that article in the Guardian said he had phenomenal crossing so what does he do?
Does he …
a) skip around the keeper and score himself,.
b) roll it along the ground for Obafemi to tap into an empty
net
c) brainlessly drill it across the fucking box at waist
height, giving Obafemi absolutely no chance to react, allowing Arsenal to clear
the ball.
Yep, you fucking guessed it.
No worries though as a few minutes later we break superbly on the left and the ball finds Obafemi out wide. He threads a through ball to Ings in much the same way that he did in the demolition derby at Fratton Park, only this time, Tierney runs across Ings and pulls him back. Miraculously, Stuart Atwell not only sees it but at the home ground of the top six club, actually gives it. A quick VIR check and unbelievably, it’s still a penalty. Up steps JWP and I’m feeling quite confident…. but it doesn’t hit it very well and Leno plunges to his left to parry it back out… and JWP smashes it into an empty net. Fucking hell. A momentary nightmare but we are 2-1 in front.
Shane Long is on for Ings and Djenepo is on for Obafemi as Ralph keeps the pace up front and doesn’t bring on another defender and sit back. This is good news. The shit part of Arsenal’s team is still the shit part of Arsenal’s team so why change? As if to prove that point almost straight away, a bal out if flicked on by Djenepo to Redmond and Redders draws the defender before finding Djenepo again who bangs it past leno but Willock has got back to stop a certain goal. Good defending to be fair.
The final sub is Boufal on for Armstrong so again, it’s an attacking change when it could have been Romeu or Yoshida coming on and once again, the sub works… well it should have anyway. Boufal picks it up on the left and goes on one of his mazy runs, beating a few and getting to the line and rolling the ball back to Djenepo who is only five yards out and from right on front of the goal, he fucking puts it wide. Unbelievable.
And so we reach the 96 minute and one last Arsenal attack and what do you fucking know. Down our right hand side they go yet again and Martinelli this time, again totally on the hindered by our European champion right back who has been caught ball watching, gets the cross over and in the carnage that follows with McCarthy attempting and missing a flying punch, Lacazette brings it down and smashes it into the net. There’s a bizarre moment when I think it’s going to be disallowed by VAR because no one is celebrating and there’s not much noise on the ground because most of the Arsenal fans, appear to have fucked off. Fucks sake, 2-2 and we only have ourselves to blame.
It’s the hope that kills you isn’t it? Usually I am absolutely convinced that we are going to let a goal in when we are one goal in front going into the last few minutes but today I really thought we were going to get to the end of the game and see this one out. I thought that Arsenal, with all the problems that they’ve been having, weren’t going to get the break they needed to get them an equaliser but in typical Southampton fashion, we managed to miss chance after chance and then cough up a goal right at the fucking end. Gutted. Took the gun, loaded it and shot ourselves in the bollocks.
Unlike most of our recent defeats though, there were some positives to take from today, not least in the performance of Ralph Hasenhuttl. It’s been well documented that he’s had some severe wobbly moments this season but today I find it hard to find a single fault in anything that he did. The original team selection was a bit of an eye-opener but it was pretty obvious if you bothered to actually look into it, that he had picked this team specifically to play against the weaknesses in Arsenal’s team. The tactics of having Obafemi and Redmond stretching and pressing Arsenal’s very very dodgy back three worked really well. The tried and tested and very slow midfield three that we usually put out there with Hojbjerg Romeu and JWP, needed changing and the inclusion of Armstrong gave us a bit of tactical flexibility and we didn’t miss the more destructive qualities of Romeu, even though he’s probably been the best midfielder that we have had this season. Picking two central defenders to play in a back four it’s always going to be a nightmare with the players we have available but Stephens deserved to play after his last few performances and he and Bednarek formed a decent partnership. The decision to leave Vestergaard out was 100% correct.
Personally I would not have picked Cedric but when he can be bothered he is the best right back that we have to play in a back four. Ralph’s substitutions were at the right time and were very brave especially bringing on Boufal when we were to one up. It would’ve been very easy to bring Romeu on but Boufal came on with the intent of getting us a third goal and he kept Arsenal pinned back and set up the glorious chance that Djenepo horrifically put a foot wide.
The reason we didn’t win this game is nothing to do with the manager. It is down to the age old fact but you cannot win matches at Premier League level if you miss the kind of chances that we missed. The absolute abortion of a cross by Cedric to Obafemi was in my opinion, the worst of the lot. Cedric had done so well to take the ball off the horrific Sokratis but you would think the player who had that very positive article about himself in a national paper recently, would be able to pass the ball 5 yards along the ground. Djenepo’s miss after Boufal jinked past 3 players and gave it to him on a plate was horrific but the other Djenepo miss was down to good defending but he should still have scored obviously.
No worries though as a few minutes later we break superbly on the left and the ball finds Obafemi out wide. He threads a through ball to Ings in much the same way that he did in the demolition derby at Fratton Park, only this time, Tierney runs across Ings and pulls him back. Miraculously, Stuart Atwell not only sees it but at the home ground of the top six club, actually gives it. A quick VIR check and unbelievably, it’s still a penalty. Up steps JWP and I’m feeling quite confident…. but it doesn’t hit it very well and Leno plunges to his left to parry it back out… and JWP smashes it into an empty net. Fucking hell. A momentary nightmare but we are 2-1 in front.
Shane Long is on for Ings and Djenepo is on for Obafemi as Ralph keeps the pace up front and doesn’t bring on another defender and sit back. This is good news. The shit part of Arsenal’s team is still the shit part of Arsenal’s team so why change? As if to prove that point almost straight away, a bal out if flicked on by Djenepo to Redmond and Redders draws the defender before finding Djenepo again who bangs it past leno but Willock has got back to stop a certain goal. Good defending to be fair.
The final sub is Boufal on for Armstrong so again, it’s an attacking change when it could have been Romeu or Yoshida coming on and once again, the sub works… well it should have anyway. Boufal picks it up on the left and goes on one of his mazy runs, beating a few and getting to the line and rolling the ball back to Djenepo who is only five yards out and from right on front of the goal, he fucking puts it wide. Unbelievable.
And so we reach the 96 minute and one last Arsenal attack and what do you fucking know. Down our right hand side they go yet again and Martinelli this time, again totally on the hindered by our European champion right back who has been caught ball watching, gets the cross over and in the carnage that follows with McCarthy attempting and missing a flying punch, Lacazette brings it down and smashes it into the net. There’s a bizarre moment when I think it’s going to be disallowed by VAR because no one is celebrating and there’s not much noise on the ground because most of the Arsenal fans, appear to have fucked off. Fucks sake, 2-2 and we only have ourselves to blame.
It’s the hope that kills you isn’t it? Usually I am absolutely convinced that we are going to let a goal in when we are one goal in front going into the last few minutes but today I really thought we were going to get to the end of the game and see this one out. I thought that Arsenal, with all the problems that they’ve been having, weren’t going to get the break they needed to get them an equaliser but in typical Southampton fashion, we managed to miss chance after chance and then cough up a goal right at the fucking end. Gutted. Took the gun, loaded it and shot ourselves in the bollocks.
Unlike most of our recent defeats though, there were some positives to take from today, not least in the performance of Ralph Hasenhuttl. It’s been well documented that he’s had some severe wobbly moments this season but today I find it hard to find a single fault in anything that he did. The original team selection was a bit of an eye-opener but it was pretty obvious if you bothered to actually look into it, that he had picked this team specifically to play against the weaknesses in Arsenal’s team. The tactics of having Obafemi and Redmond stretching and pressing Arsenal’s very very dodgy back three worked really well. The tried and tested and very slow midfield three that we usually put out there with Hojbjerg Romeu and JWP, needed changing and the inclusion of Armstrong gave us a bit of tactical flexibility and we didn’t miss the more destructive qualities of Romeu, even though he’s probably been the best midfielder that we have had this season. Picking two central defenders to play in a back four it’s always going to be a nightmare with the players we have available but Stephens deserved to play after his last few performances and he and Bednarek formed a decent partnership. The decision to leave Vestergaard out was 100% correct.
Personally I would not have picked Cedric but when he can be bothered he is the best right back that we have to play in a back four. Ralph’s substitutions were at the right time and were very brave especially bringing on Boufal when we were to one up. It would’ve been very easy to bring Romeu on but Boufal came on with the intent of getting us a third goal and he kept Arsenal pinned back and set up the glorious chance that Djenepo horrifically put a foot wide.
The reason we didn’t win this game is nothing to do with the manager. It is down to the age old fact but you cannot win matches at Premier League level if you miss the kind of chances that we missed. The absolute abortion of a cross by Cedric to Obafemi was in my opinion, the worst of the lot. Cedric had done so well to take the ball off the horrific Sokratis but you would think the player who had that very positive article about himself in a national paper recently, would be able to pass the ball 5 yards along the ground. Djenepo’s miss after Boufal jinked past 3 players and gave it to him on a plate was horrific but the other Djenepo miss was down to good defending but he should still have scored obviously.
Moussa Reflects on his Miss and Cedric Reflects on Yet Another Goal from His Side.
As I’ve frequently said, I’m not a fan of Cedric and his defending at times was horrific as he totally failed to stop any cross coming into a box and I have no idea where he was on the second goal. Other than him, I thought everyone played excellently and none of the players can really be criticised. Stephens and Bednarek were excellent at centre back and hopefully we persevere with that. JWP had his best game of the season in midfield, though I could have done without him playing a 1-2 off of the goalkeeper from the penalty spot. All of the forward players contributed in keeping the Arsenal defenders under pressure, Ings got another goal which was another excellent finished and Obafemi would have had a goal if our phenomenal crosser of a Euro 2016 winner could pass a ball 5 yards along the ground.
For a side hoping to finish up near the top of the league, Arsenal are
hilariously bad. The back three is barely championship standard but what I
found particularly irritating about them was the amount of surrounding of the
referee and people running to get involved in situations which had absolutely
fuck all to do with them. Lacazette was the worst in this regard and that
little shit with the hair in midfield, really needs to get a slap off of
someone. There was a stat kicking around which said that it was Calum Chambers
longest run in the Arsenal starting 11. All that proves is how they have come
down to his level.
Despite the last-minute equaliser, this needs to be a springboard for Saints, a springboard to get results in the next few games. We need to play with that energy and that determination for the whole 95 minutes in the games we have got coming up. Repeat today’s performance levels and we give ourselves a chance but if we slip back to something approaching the Everton first half performance then we may as well get ready for the Championship right now. Today is the day to look at the performance and believe that we can get better. We have gone away to Arsenal and got a point and regardless of how relatively bad Arsenal are these days, to go there and get a point is decent but it will be another false dawn if we don’t beat Watford on Saturday. This really has to be a win.
PS – I know I mentioned the Cedric – Obafemi thing about 3 times. It’s justified as it was that shit.
Despite the last-minute equaliser, this needs to be a springboard for Saints, a springboard to get results in the next few games. We need to play with that energy and that determination for the whole 95 minutes in the games we have got coming up. Repeat today’s performance levels and we give ourselves a chance but if we slip back to something approaching the Everton first half performance then we may as well get ready for the Championship right now. Today is the day to look at the performance and believe that we can get better. We have gone away to Arsenal and got a point and regardless of how relatively bad Arsenal are these days, to go there and get a point is decent but it will be another false dawn if we don’t beat Watford on Saturday. This really has to be a win.
PS – I know I mentioned the Cedric – Obafemi thing about 3 times. It’s justified as it was that shit.
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