Southampton striker Charlie Austin was disappointed to not have put away more of his chances against Arsenal.
Austin has a superb record against Arsenal. The striker’s scored three goals in three games against the Gunners and, with two shots on target on Sunday, he should have improved upon this tally. However, Petr Cech kept him out and the 28-year-old has been left frustrated.
“It’s a massive sense of frustration,” Austin said post-match.
“We started off like a house on fire, with four chances in the first seven minutes, but we needed to get the second goal.
“I feel like I’m going to get chance after chance, so I’m putting myself in the right positions and luckily I’ve put the ball in the net.
“I should’ve scored the one when I went across Cech. As a kid growing up I was always told to go across goal, but he’s made a good save.
“I was delighted with the goal, but it was just instinct really. It got us a great start, but it’s one of them where we should’ve got the three points.”
Despite Southampton having the best of the chances at St. Mary’s, Arsenal managed to net a late equaliser through Olivier Giroud and salvage an undeserved point.
Therefore, you can completely understand why Austin isn’t jumping for joy over the result. His side held onto a 1-0 lead for 85 minutes before Arsene Wenger’s men managed to pull the result back and stop the home team from earning all three points.
Still, the Englishman has scored four goals in his last four Premier League games – five in total this season – so I doubt he’ll be too down about not netting another.
He’ll get another chance to score in front of his home crowd when Southampton host Leicester on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Arsenal travel across London to West Ham, who managed to beat Chelsea 1-0 on Saturday and will therefore be in high spirits.
Inconsistent Ozil and vital Alexis? Who really was Arsenal’s worst player against Southampton?
Picking out Arsenal’s three worst players against Southampton is like peering into a bin and trying to choose which piece of rubbish is the least shiny.
I should probably point out that I appear to have watched a completely different game to the Mirror, who seem to think that Alexandre Lacazette and Mesut Ozil struggled against the Saints.
Personally, I thought they were two of our few decent players.
They also reckon that Alexis Sanchez was the best.
Granted, he did provide the assist for Olivier Giroud’s equaliser, which will inflate his stats slightly, but that’s all he did for 90 minutes. Apart from flap his arms around and shout at his teammates whenever he misplaced a pass, that is. Oh, and give the ball away over and over and over again.
It really is as if the media have forgotten the Chilean doesn’t play for Manchester City yet…
But who were the worst on the day?
Granit Xhaka
Xhaka hasn’t been at the races at all this season and it really showed against Southampton when he was subbed off for the more creative Jack Wilshere. We did improve.
Although the midfielder created the second-most passes (95), he offered very little.
While I realise that it’s Aaron Ramsey’s job to help drive play forward while Xhaka acts as guard dog, that doesn’t mean he has to remain stagnant for the entire game.
Per Mertesacker
Poor Per.
I love him, I really do, but I’m glad that he’s decided to hang up his boots at the end of the season in favour of becoming head of the academy.
The German was at fault for the Saints’ only goal when he got confused and tripped over in the third minute.
If it hadn’t been for Petr Cech, we would have conceded a second in three minutes later.
Alexis Sanchez
It probably won’t surprise you that the Chilean ranks as my worst player against Southampton.
Fine, I acknowledge that he assisted Giroud’s goal but that almost makes the rest of his performance even worse.
He can produce a moment of brilliance out of nothing, as we so often hear, but then he can play for 88 minutes and do little more than give the ball away and be a complete liability.
Alexis lost possession 32 times at St. Mary’s. What could we have done if he hadn’t? For the likes of the Mirror to then complain about Mesut Ozil, while naming Alexis as the best outfield player for Arsenal, makes their claims of having ‘no agenda’ laughable.
What’s more, this is a forward playing for a move to Manchester City.
All players have off games but this is getting ridiculous.
Xhaka needs dropped & other things we learned from Arsenal’s shambolic display at Southampton
Another Arsenal away game, another embarrassing display from men who earn more in a week than I probably have in my entire life.
Olivier Giroud saved the Gunners a point with his 88th-minute goal and I don’t begrudge him his celebration, which overlapped into time his side could have spent fighting for a winner. He was brought on as a super-sup and did his job; their abject display during the first 75 minutes had nothing to do with him.
The match was another example of a personal error costing the team and Arsenal being incapable of netting one of their two thousand shots.
We went 1-0 behind in the third minute. That’s plenty of time to fight back and win the match.
The old Arsenal would have but not this Arsenal. Not this team.
Other than the fact we’re really bad at football – apart from Laca, Ozil and Rambo – here’s five other things we learned from the game.
We can’t defend for s**t!
If Manchester United’s two early goals last weekend weren’t enough, Southampton’s in the third minute on Sunday should be.
Last Saturday it was Shkodran Mustafi’s mistake, this time it was Per Mertesacker who fell over and allowed Charlie Austin to dance through and flick the ball past Petr Cech.
This isn’t a new problem by any stretch, which makes me wonder whether Steve Bould is genuinely working on the defensive side of the game with the lads in training or whether that’s just the official line.
Either way, there’s been no improvement and it’s just embarrassing now.
Per Mertesacker is past his best
As much as I love the BFG, he’s looking well past his best.
Although he has always been slow, his reading of the game and interception rate always made him one of our most reliable defenders.
However, with age and lack of regular game time, he can’t even really do that very well anymore.
It’s a shame but at least he’s already decided to become head of the academy once his contract runs out at the end of the season.
Arsenal should give Mesut Ozil whatever he wants
Ozil, Aaron Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette were the only Arsenal players that didn’t stink out the entire stadium at St. Mary’s.
Ozil was constantly trying to drive play forward but there’s only so much one man can do.
With just six months left on his contract, I sincerely hope the reports are true that he’s signing a new deal.
We should give the playmaker whatever he wants.
I couldn’t care less about Alexis Sanchez.
It’s time for Granit Xhaka to be dropped
The midfielder has been well below par this season and I can’t help but think Jack Wilshere would offer so much more, even if the boss does want the England international to play further forward.
Jack needs game time and at the moment we’re just playing Xhaka for the sake of consistency.
Well, the Switzerland international has been consistently poor for a while now.
Goalkeepers become world class against Arsenal
https://twitter.com/NickVann1987/status/939836730320056320
No matter what team you play for, if you’re a goalkeeper, you’ll have the game of your life against the Gunners!
Arsenal fans rip Alexis apart on Twitter after Southampton shocker
Alexis Sanchez put in another clueless performance against Southampton on Saturday afternoon and Arsenal fans were infuriated.
Ever since Alexis was linked with a move away to Manchester City in the summer, his displays for Arsenal have become increasingly mediocre and most of us have had enough.
Despite the Chilean netting four Premier League goals this season and assisting three, he’s been poor, wasteful and – at times – downright awful.
Against Southampton, he was no different. Even though he assisted Olivier Giroud’s late equaliser, the forward had just one shot all game. He also lost possession 32 times and won just one of the four tackles he attempted.
The 28-year-old has a habit of losing the ball himself but blaming everyone around him for the mistake and throwing his toys out the pram, which isn’t helping anyone. And it’s especially not endearing him to the fans.
https://twitter.com/ChrisWheatley_/status/939861776300113920
Gooners haven’t just noticed his temper tantrums and dismal displays, we’ve become intensely frustrated with Alexis as a result. Especially when Arsene Wenger takes off our £52m striker Alexandre Lacazette instead of the dribbling cry-baby who’s done nothing but get dispossessed until this point.
As you can imagine, Twitter was NOT holding back during the game, and you can’t blame them. This is a player who wanted to leave north London during the summer in order to play in the Champions League with our rivals and now seems to have forgotten how to play in red and white.
Yet according to the media, pundits, the boss and fellow players, he’s a complete professional, right?
Unlike Mesut Ozil, it looks as if Gooners can’t wait to see the back of Alexis.
https://twitter.com/knickthoughts/status/939844211326808064
https://twitter.com/elspanishgooner/status/939852251207815173
https://twitter.com/TheFalseNein/status/939855563202146306
https://twitter.com/TroopzAFC/status/939852256064745479
https://twitter.com/Challies11/status/939854146253082624
https://twitter.com/DelmeJ/status/939863753922891777
https://twitter.com/Joecompton3/status/939863421377548293
https://twitter.com/TheVieraRole/status/939863293958770688
https://twitter.com/ffsAdu/status/939863280524431362
https://twitter.com/Bloatyheader/status/939861233506902021