Arsène Wenger bemoaned Southampton’s time wasting and the refereeing performance after the Gunners could only manage a draw at St. Mary’s on Sunday.

The Gunners managed to snatch a result in the dying moments, as Giroud scored yet another important late goal from the bench.

Arsène Wenger said it wasn’t what they needed, however, he told BT Sport: “Happy [with the result]? No because we wanted to win, but when you cannot win at least don’t lose it.”

Arsène then went on to talk about Southampton’s tactic of running down the clock, even from the very early stages of the second half: “In the second half we played in their half. The wasting of time became a real problem and the referees have not found an answer yet.

“In the first half the referee could have given a penalty and in the second half we could not take advantage of a counter-attack in the last minute. I think it’s in the hands of the players to respect the game and to play and then for the referees to act early (on time wasting).”

In the counter-attack Wenger is referring to, the Gunners were pulled back for a free-kick when the advantage could’ve been played. Then, when Arsenal tried to take the kick quickly to get on the attack, they were pulled back again so the free-kick could be re-taken from slightly further back.

Momentum was already hard enough to come by, with a Southampton player  booked for time wasting on a throw in, but instances like that one just allowed the game to slow down even further. As usual, the referee failed to do anything about time-wasting until it was too late to matter.

It happens almost every week against the smaller clubs, and especially whenever they manage to get a lead. But  referees rarely act on it, and when they do, they do it so late and so slowly that they only add to the problem.

The Gunners weren’t good enough for much of the match, but they certainly weren’t helped by the officials, again and that’s a big source of frustration for those watching on.

That’s also at least three or four clear penalties Arsenal should have had recently but, still, at least we got that soft free-kick 40-yards from goal against Tottenham, eh?