MATCH REPORT: Arsenal 3-0 Southampton

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Arsenal (2) 3 Southampton (0) 0

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Saturday, 11th December 2021. Kick-off time: 3.00pm

(4-4-4-1) Aaron Ramsdale; Takehiro Tomiyasu, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhães, Kieran Tierney; Bukayo Saka, Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka, Gabriel Martinelli; Martin Ødegaard; Alexandre Lacazette.

Substitutes: Emile Smith-Rowe, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Rob Holding, Cédric Soares, Nicolas Pépé, Nuno Tavares, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Eddie Nketiah, Arthur Okonkwo.

Scorers: Alexandre Lacazette (21 mins), Martin Ødegaard (27 mins), Gabriel (62 mins)

Yellow Cards: Gabriel, Bukayo Saka

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 62%

Referee: Jarred Gillett

Assistant Referees: Adam Nunn, Neil Davie

Fourth Official: Anthony Taylor

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Michael Oliver; AVAR Scott Ledger

Attendance: 59,653

After the disaster at Goodison Park last Monday, we are at home today against Southampton, and pound for pound, they are a team that we are capable of beating (in theory). The trouble is, quite bluntly, which Arsenal will turn up this afternoon? Utilising a 4-4-4-1 formation, and with Emile Smith-Rowe on the bench, we have to say that anything can happen! Very frustrating times for Mikel Arteta, the players and supporters too. Anyway, we’ll soon know the answer at 4.45pm this afternoon.

Quite a lively start with both sides trying each other’s defences out with some probing football, and very quickly Southampton had us under pressure with the ball not travelling outside our half for the first ten minutes. Gabriel was booked in the sixth minute, and Adam Armstrong’s right footed shot from the left side of the box was well saved by Aaron Ramsdale as it headed towards the bottom left corner. The visitors were certainly causing us some problems, and our only chance to try to change this situation was to break out, which we did successfully from time to time. Bukayo Saka brought down a Southampton player just outside the penalty area and the subsequent free-kick from Kyle Walker-Peters went way over the Arsenal bar thankfully. On the twenty-first minute, some clever passing play by us found the feet of Bukayo Saka out on the right hand side, who coolly slotted the ball into the visitors’ penalty area for Alexandre Lacazette to score the opening goal of the afternoon with his trusty right foot. The goal appeared to wake us up somewhat, and we now started to play with confidence, stroking the ball around, and finding our players fairly easily. Six minutes later, we scored a second goal, when the ball came across from the right hand side again, which found the head of Kieran Tierney, who headed the ball across the goal for Martin Ødegaard to score a well-taken headed goal from close range. With two goals to the good, and before the half hour mark as well, we are in control and looking very confident indeed. Alexandre Lacazette nearly grabbed a second goal for himself when a through ball came to his feet in the Saints’ penalty area, only for him to be denied by a last minute tackle from Tino Livramento. Bukayo Saka was also unlucky not to score a minute or so later, when a clever backheel from Martin Ødegaard found him in the visitors’ penalty area, but his strong shot was tipped over the bar by Willy Caballero. In the three minutes’ injury time of the first half, a Southampton free-kick went over Aaron Ramsdale’s bar courtesy of the wall, which held firm from a strong James Ward-Prowse shot. Although we managed to get a corner on the stroke of half-time, the match paused with the score being two up to the Gunners.

Within a minute of the restart, Granit Xhaka’s left-footed shot from outside the penalty area went high and wide to the left of the Saints’ goal. The visitors made an attempt on our goal quite early on in the second half, but we superbly played our way out of the problem, and over on the right-hand side, Takehiro Tomiyasu covered a lot of ground to pick up the loose pass, and also when he ran back to cover when Southampton moved forward. Some good play led to Martin Ødegaard blasting a shot over the visitors’ bar from twenty yards, and a couple of minutes’ later, Aaron Ramsdale made a superb save from Nathan Tella, which looked quite dangerous. However, the momentum was ours, as we came forward to try to add to the score time and time again. Just before the hour mark, Gabriel got the ball into the net, but it was chalked off for offside; however, two minutes later, a Gabriel Martinelli corner saw Gabriel rise up and head the ball home for our third goal of the match. Excellent. We are in complete control now; after the restart, Gabriel Martinelli found himself outside the box when he struck the bar with a curling shot before Takehiro Tomiyasu was denied by a fine Willy Caballero save on the rebound. Bukayo Saka then hit the woodwork with an excellent shot, and with twenty minutes of the match remaining, goalscorer Gabriel was replaced by Rob Holding to shore up things at the back with fresh legs. We are playing out from the back (as usual) and are just stroking the ball around, looking extremely confident; but we nearly got caught out when a loose ball found Nathan Redmond and Aaron Ramsdale made an acrobatic save to deny the visitors a goalscoring chance. Despite this, and the relentless rain falling down from the North London sky, the match had become one-way traffic, and we looked commanding as the game descended into the last ten minutes or so. Granit Xhaka was replaced by Albert Sambi Lokonga, and we carried on regardless. With eight minutes of the match remaining, Alexandre Lacazette was replaced by Nicolas Pépé, and still we kept advancing looking for that elusive fourth goal. As the match died down, game management was the order of the day for us, and although we could have scored at any time, it appeared to be more important to stop Southampton scoring and to keep a clean sheet, although Bukayo Saka’s left-footed shot narrowly went past the post virtually on the final kick of the game.

All the pre-match talk today was of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang being dropped from the squad “due to a disciplinary breach”, but to be fair, who really cares? After an iffy start, we got a grip and took command of the match and in the end, we got the result we truly needed. It would be glib to say that “it was only Southampton” but that would show conceit and arrogance of the most highest order; as we have seen, the Premiership is a sometimes impossible place to predict a result, let alone get one. Anyway, at this moment in time, we are fifth in the Premiership table, and our next match is West Ham United on Wednesday night. Now that will be interesting.

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: West Ham United at the Emirates on Wednesday, 15th December at 8.00pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.

Double defeat shows Arsenal still have a long journey ahead (is Arteta the right man to take us there?)

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I wrote a few days ago about how games away to Manchester United and Everton will really show where Arsenal are this season.

Double victories would have had us as top 4 contenders and probably favourites to take that 4th place. A draw and a win would have led to a similar mind set.

The worst case scenario would be a double defeat.

Losing both games would show that we are not really top 4 contenders.

Prior to the double header, we were a team that were beating those teams in a relegation battle, losing to those in the top 3 and mixed results against those looking to finish top half of the table (victories against Leicester City and Tottenham offset with draws to Brighton and Crystal Palace).

We ended up with the worst case scenario – losing both games.

The double defeat leaves us in 7th, 4 points off West Ham in 4th and – perhaps more concerning – 2 points below Tottenham who have a game in hand. We are also back below Manchester United.

Since getting rid of Ole, Manchester United have won 2 and drawn 1 of their 3 Premier League games. A little run that included facing Arsenal and Chelsea.

Tottenham are also unbeaten in the 4 Premier League games since Antonio Conte took over – 3 wins and a draw.

Tottenham and Manchester United twisted, Arsenal stuck.

The turn around in form of the two sides that sacked their managers will heap further pressure from the fans onto Arsenal and Mikel Arteta.

If we finish below Tottenham and Manchester United – having been above both when they sacked their managers – the placings can be directly linked to the managers.

It will be impossibile to justify keeping Arteta when others have shown the improvement after sacking the manager.

Arteta will not be sacked tomorrow. He will get the rest of the season. One issue Arsenal face is potential replacements have been snapped up by others.

It is not yet time to hit the panic button. But if we end up below Tottenham and Manchester United then that should be it for Arteta.

Up next we have home games agaisnt Southampton and West Ham. 6 points from 6 are non-negoatiable. Failure will see the atmosphere at the Emirates quickly change.

I am usually a positive fella. But with the drab football, poor performances and poor results, it is hard to be positive right now.

Keenos

MATCH REPORT: Everton 2 – 1 Arsenal

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Everton (0) 2 Arsenal (1) 1

Premier League

Goodison Park, Goodison Road, Liverpool L4 4EL

Monday, 6th December 2021. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Aaron Ramsdale; Takehiro Tomiyasu, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhães, Kieran Tierney; Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka; Gabriel Martinelli, Martin Ødegaard, Bukayo Saka; Alexandre Lacazette.

Substitutes: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Rob Holding, Cédric Soares, Nicolas Pépé, Nuno Tavares, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Mohamed Elneny, Eddie Nketiah, Arthur Okonkwo.

Scorers: Martin Ødegaard (45 +2)

Yellow Cards: Granit Xhaka, Martin Ødegaard

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 64%

Referee: Mike Dean

Assistant Referees: Eddie Smart, Mark Scholes

Fourth Official: Andy Madley

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Stuart Attwell; AVAR Stuart Burt

Attendance: 38,906

We all know that in this day and age, every match played in the Premiership is important, and games like this tonight, against Everton in Liverpool, are even more so. After the result at Old Trafford last Thursday, it takes on a different perspective now when we realise that a victory at Goodison Park is crucial in order for us to keep pace with the top four and try, somehow, to complete the season in the Champions League (or Europa League) places. We’ll see. Anyway, great to see the return of Granit Xhaka, along with Kieran Tierney too. Also, good to see a start for Alexandre Lacazette, as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been left on the bench tonight.

We kicked off tonight’s match in earnest, and the home side looked quite spirited in seizing any early opportunity to place us under pressure, which they did quite successfully in the early stages. Anyway, the match settled down, and so did we, and slowly we started to take control, with our usual game of accurate passing and clinical tackling. On the sixth minute however, as in the Premiership matches over the weekend, there was applause around Goodison Park from fans of both teams for little Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, which was an incredibly moving action by everyone at the match. Everton appear to be attacking in groups, or packs tonight, which the Arsenal defence found it difficult to neutralise, but so far, everyone is working hard to prevent the home side gaining any form of advantage. Lots of strong tackles and physical challenges out there tonight, personified in a very strong tackle on Kieran Tierney, who tumbled off the pitch and ended up in a heap by the avertisement hoardings, courtesy of Ben Godfrey. After eighteen minutes, some great play by ourselves led to a wild shot by Thomas Partey which went up and over the bar and into the crowd, which appeared to spark us into life. Bukayo Saka went to ground after a late and physical Ben Godfrey challenge, and after some treatment from the medical staff, he got to his feet and carried on with the game, thankfully. The match soon returned to its previous thunder, with both teams struggling to do much in each other’s final third of the pitch; however, it was the home side that appear to be placing us under more pressure than we did to them at this point in the game. Just before the half hour point, referee Mike Dean consulted VAR after a late tackle by Ben Godfrey (again) on Takehiro Tomiyasu, which saw the former’s boot into our man’s face; no action was taken, but only the Everton man will know as to whether it was intentional or not. Now we are struggling to get things moving, and every time one of our players has the ball, at least three Everton players pounce on him, which makes things difficult to build up a distinct pattern of play. It’s a very tough match out there, with little space for our players to operate in, and as such the game looks stifled and clogged in the midfield areas. A minute before the break, the home side scored, but thankfully VAR chalked it off for offside. However, right on the stroke of half-time, just a minute or so after the Everton goal was cancelled out, Kieran Tiernay ran down the left, crossed the ball, and Martin Ødegaard hit the ball sweetly on the volley to put us in the lead at half-time. Incredible!

The home side kicked off the second half proceedings, and within a minute or so of the restart, Aaron Ramsdale tipped a dangerous ball over the bar, courtesy of Anthony Gordon, and after an Everton corner that went absolutely nowhere, we started to take the match to the home side at last. We were awarded two free-kicks n a row for two bad fouls on Bukayo Saka by Ben Godfrey and Richarlison, and although our efforts were unrewarded, the intent was there for all to see. We seem to be playing better so far in this half, certainly with more purpose, intent and desire, which is better to see. Just before the hour, some poor marking by our defenders led to an Everton goal courtesy again by Richarlison, that was cancelled out by VAR for offside. We can breathe again. Just afterwards a quick attack by Arsenal led to a clever chip by Gabriel Martinelli which ended up on the roof of the Everton net. The game started to get scrappy with physical tackles flying in from both sides, and it was one of these that saw Granit Xhaka pick up a yellow card for a mistimed tackle on Anthony Gordon. Nuno Tavares replaced a tired Kieran Tierney after sixty-five minutes, and the match continued in its now typical plodding, aggressive manner. Gabriel Martinelli collapsed with cramp, and was replaced by Eddie Nketiah with twenty minutes of the match remaining. Just after Martin Ødegaard collected our second yellow card of the night for alleged time-wasting, Anthony Gordon escaped a booking after catching Nuno Tavares with a bad foul that certainly slowed the Arsenal man dowm for a while afterwards. With eleven minutes of the match remaining, Richarlison scored at the third time of trying, when a shot from Demarai Gray hit the crossbar, and he headed the rebound past a stranded Aaron Ramsdale. There is nothing like a goal to liven things up, and this certainly did. Martin Ødegaard claimed a penalty when the ball hit Ben Godfrey’s arm, but his appeal was denied. Eddie Nketiah’s header hit the post from point-blank range via a superb Bukayo Saka cross just before Alexandre Lacazette was replaced by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with six minutes of the match left to play. With the game ebbing away, both sides threw themselves into the fray for one last attempt on goal to win the match. Two minutes into injury time, Demarai Gray hit the ball from outside the penalty area and his subsequent shot gave Aaron Ramsdale no chance. That late goal knocked the stuffing out of us; although both Everton and Arsenal could have scored again, the final whistle brought this game to a conclusion shortly afterwards.

Let’s face it, overall we were poor tonight. Going to a place like Goodison Park, not only do you have to compete, but you have to take your chances when they arise; having sixty-four percent of the game is not much good when you don’t put your chances away when presented to you. It makes matters worse when we were in front, and had the chance to control the match through game management and take the sting out of the home side’s tail, but failed miserably to do that. How Eddie Nketiah and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed point-blank open goals was nothing short of a disgrace, as was Mike Dean’s failure to protect Bukayo Saka when he was getting kicked around the pitch by various Everton defenders was appalling, as was the fact that a red card wasn’t produced after Ben Godfrey’s boot met Takehiro Tomiyasu’s face, drawing blood in the process. Not only were we outplayed by a team that hasn’t tasted victory for eight matches, but this was our third consecutive away defeat, all three at grounds in Liverpool and Manchester. We have Southampton at the Emirates on Saturday afternoon; if things go wrong again there, questions will be asked, undoubtedly.

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Southampton at the Emirates on Saturday, 11th December at 3.00pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.