Premier League Match 19 - Southampton 1 Arsenal 3

Alex McCarthy Goes Walkabout

Three days after sending the Arsenal crashing out of the FA Cup, we get the chance to beat them again in the Premier League. Somehow, I think this is going to be slightly more difficult. For starters, Mikel Arteta cannot really justify picking a weakened team for this one and secondly, Saints are going to be weaker based on the fact that Ryan Bertrand is suspended and KWP is injured which will mean in all likelihood that we will have two youngsters at right and left back.

Arteta has predictably taken a lot of flak since Saturday and even though it appears that Aubameyang is still unavailable, they will no doubt be boosted by the return of the likes of Lacazette, Saka and Emile Smith Rowe. Smith Rowe is a youngster who has come to the fore recently and has done really well but as is the way with big clubs, Arsenal have decided to block his path and limit his opportunities by signing Martin Odegaard from Real Madrid. Odegaard is a youngster who was tipped to be the greatest thing since sliced bread when he was 16 and whilst he’s made a few appearances for Real Madrid‘s first team, has never really set the world on fire. Regardless, he won’t be available this evening.

As I said earlier, KWP has picked up a knock to join the list of players on the sidelines. There is a boost in that Nathan Redmond is now fit enough to be on the bench but that’s not going to help us out defensively tonight. It looks like Yan Valery and Jake Vokins will be pressed into action and the two players are pretty similar in that they are pretty good going forward but not so great at the defending part of the job.  I anticipate some hairy moments but hopefully they will be okay. Up until now, Vokins has only ever played against League 1 opposition in the FA Cup whereas Valery’s good games were all as a wing-back as opposed to a full back. It may not sound very different, but it really is. Valery will be okay as long as he concentrates for 95 minutes. It will be an interesting test of the Southampton playbook to see if players can just slot in because they used to playing this way with the B team.

The starting line up is as expected with McCarthy back and Valery and Vokins deputising.  Arsenal have a more recognizable line up but Cedric is in again at left back with Tierney still injured.

It’s important to make a solid start and Bednarek, the one first choice member of our back four, fucks up immediately and gives the ball straight to Xhaka in midfield.  One pass and Lacazette is clean through with just McCarthy to beat but luckily, the returning goalkeeper spreads himself well to block the effort and thanks also to JWP getting back to hack the loose ball away, we get away with it. Not the confident start that the defence would’ve wanted.

30 seconds later and Stephens pings one over to Valery on the right wing and his cross is met by Ings but his header hits Holding and goes wide for a corner.  JWP swings it out towards the penalty spot and it’s met by the unmarked Armstrong who hits a thunderbastard of a half volley into the ground and it’s flying past Leno to put us 1-0 up after 3 minutes.  How many times does that happen?  Big chance missed at one end, straight up the other end, goal.

We still don’t look great. Walcott puts us under pressure by losing the ball on the right-hand side but the eventual shite cross from Pepe is easily gathered by McCarthy. McCarthy then throws out to Bednarek, onto Stephens who is just too casual and takes too long get the ball away and Lacazette gets a foot in and the ball goes straight to Saka.  A quick ball to Xhaka and Xhaka slides it through to Pepe who has got in between Valery and Bednarek and he just rolls it past McCarthy as easily as you like.  Fuck. Eight minutes gone and 1-1.  Ralph  would have enjoyed the goal if we’d scored it  – win the ball high up, two passes, goal.

Arsenal are giving us the hurry up and playing us at our own game and pressing high and we are coughing up possession too easily. Another fuck up, this time by Diallo and we lose the ball on the edge of the box again.  Partey finds Saka on the right hand side, Vokins doesn’t even get close to blocking the cross it’s eventually half cleared away and fucking Cedric comes in and hits on the volley right-footed and this really hasn’t missed the far post by very much.  Maybe if he’d had boots on instead of espadrilles.

Vokins defending is undoubtedly dodgy but his attacking play is decent and when he gets a yard, he puts over a superb cross which Adams meets and heads goalwards but Leno gets airborne smartly to save well.  Vokins then again combines well with Armstrong, giving Armstrong the opportunity to curl one at the far post, only he curls it well outside the far post.

Saints are on top now and break well again thanks to a beautiful flick by Adams and Walcott is away on the right.  There is a simple chipped ball to Adams on and Theo makes a total bollocks of and it goes straight to Leno.   A big boot long and Valery doesn’t head it properly and one pass puts Saka away inside Vokins who is again, in totally the wrong position and McCarthy comes flying out of his penalty area and he’s never gonna get there and Saka walks round him and rolls into the net. There are so many things wrong with this goal from our point of view, where do you fucking start?  I’ll start with Walcott - How many times does that happen?  Big chance missed at one end, straight up the other end, goal.

We look relieved to get in at half time only 2-1 down.  It’s already difficult to see us getting back into this but if we are going to, it’s going to have to be early in the 2nd half.  Also, I’m thinking that we’re going to have to score two to get a point here as there’s no way we’re not conceding in the 2nd half .

The first ten minutes goes by and we’re not creating much until Ings decides to try and dribble past the whole Arsenal team and to be fair, makes a decent fist of it beating three players inside the penalty area before running out of room and typically, the ball comes off him and we don’t even get a corner.

Ralph can see it’s not happening and so the first sub comes just before the hour with Redmond coming on for Vokins, meaning Diallo to left back and Armstrong into the middle.  Why not just put Redmond at left back rather than move two players out of position to accommodate him?

Then the unthinkable happens and Cedric does something good and drills a superb diagonal ball across to Saka who has got away from Diallo and he plays it across the six yard line and even Lacazette can’t miss that and he doesn’t, game over.

Ralph knows the game is up so Walcott is put out of his misery to be replaced by Caleb Watts and somewhat surprisingly, Danny Ings is also off with Dan N’Lundulu coming on.  Fuck all happens really for the rest of the game.  Arsenal just keep a shape and we don’t do anything to try and break them down.  The two young subs have the odd moment and Watts tries to beat Xhaka on the edge of the Arsenal box and runs into him, winning a sympathy free-kick off of Kevin Friend.  JWP steps up but Leno has got all the angles right and see it all the way.

Well that was shit and we absolutely got what we deserved which was fuck all. Scored a great goal but then gifted Arsenal the lead just when it looked like we might possibly get back into it we coughed up the killer third goal. I’m less bothered about the third goal then I am the total lack of inspiration and threat going forward in the second half. There truly was nothing.

The key moment of the game came at 1-1 in the first half when Walcott had a simple pass to make, to chip the ball over to Adams who would’ve been clean through on goal. Walcott’s pass missed its intended target by about 30 yards and Arsenal went straight up our end of the pitch and scored the second goal. Everyone’s fingers pointed at McCarthy and Vokins who were both to blame for the goal but fact is that we should’ve been 2-1 in front. Strikers missing piss easy chances or butchering simple opportunities puts pressure on the defence and when the defence is makeshift, with three out of the regular back four missing, you need to give them all the help you can.

We have kids involved all over the place in our squad at the moment and when that’s the case, more than ever, the big players need to step up. This doesn’t get said often but Danny Ings was poor today as was Theo Walcott and as two of our big players, they have to be better than that. The standouts were Diallo and Armstrong but Armstrong faded badly in the second half but he wasn’t getting much a support from anyone else.  JWP put a shift in but he was unable to do it all on his own, especially when Diallo got moved to left back.

The reserve full backs weren’t too bad. Valery in particular can be quite pleased with his performance, not fucking up anything really badly defensively and at least trying to make things happen at the other end of the pitch. He is no KWP of course but he did ok. Vokins put in a couple of very good crosses but his defending is awful. He never gets close enough to the player to make a tackle and his awareness of where the player is, is non-existent. I’m not blaming him because he’s a youngster who is not quite ready to play in the first team yet, at Premier League level. Maybe he will be over time but he’s not good enough to be our second choice left back at the moment. We have been very fortunate that Ryan Bertrand is so consistent and very rarely injured or suspended.  Bednarek had a relatively solid game after the first 30 seconds and so did Stephens but his one mistake cost us when he got caught in possession which led to the Arsenal equaliser in the first half.

Ralph tried to freshen it up by bringing on substitutes relatively early and both N’Lundulu and Watts at least tried to make something happen and put themselves about. Nathan Redmond on the other hand was a complete fucking waste of time. What’s the point of coming on as a substitute in a forward position if you’re just going to turn round and jog back towards your own goal and not take on your full back once in 35 minutes. Bellerin was on a yellow card as well so he’s hardly going to be diving in with a tackle. It’s not good enough just to occupy an area on the pitch and not try and make anything happen. It’s not a fucking training session. He should be coming on thinking “I’m going to rescue this game”, I’m gonna make a difference, I’m going to get myself in the team next week” but instead we got “I’m going to play it safe and jog about”. Fucks sake.  I totally get that coming back from injury isn’t easy and you need to feel your way back but surely after 5-10 minutes you really should be trying to influence things.

Our league season is in danger of slipping away at the moment and fizzling out into nothing much. Playing two games a week is going to kill us with the squad we’ve got and especially with the injuries that we’ve got at the moment. We play in a very high intensity way and it’s no coincidence that our only league win recently was against Liverpool when we had the best part of two weeks to prepare, when the Shrewsbury game got called off.  We need to add to the squad before the window closes but whether this will be possible given the finances – who knows?

Ralph Ponders the Impact of His Most Senior Substitute

To put in it in perspective, Arsenal are better today and they played with a lot more intensity that Saturday and had their better players on the pitch. They are still a massive club despite their poor season and if they turn up, they can afford to have a couple missing.  Bukayo Saka is some player and he’s only just started – left footed, plays on the right, good on his right foot as well.  It’s shame that Gareth Southgate will doubtless mis-manage him for England.

It wasn't mentioned on commentary because we’re not a big club but we are currently missing Vestergaard and Romeu from the first XI and today we were missing Bertrand and KWP.  On top of that, we’re missing back up players like Djenepo, Smallbone, Tella and Salisu.  It all adds up – not only are they missing, it means that some don’t get the rest they need and have to play every minute and we looked tired today. We even made Cedric look good for fuck sake.

Saturday’s game against Villa he suddenly looking very difficult. They are a team that we usually beat but they are still in decent form and above us in the league at the moment so it’s going to be a tough one. Hopefully a few players can get fit again by Saturday and hopefully Ralph delivered the rocket that some of them deserved after tonight’s non-performance and it’ll better at the weekend. Up the fucking Saints.