Gooner Daily

In one of the most shambolic first half performances I’ve ever seen from an Arsenal side, the Gunners came back to life in the second 45 minutes and did very well to grab two quickfire goals before a trademark lapse in concentration handed Southampton a chance back into the game.

In the wake of Arsenal sharing the spoils in the battle of St. Mary’s, Gooner Daily accesses the team’s overall performance with the player ratings listed below,

DEFENSE

Wojciech Szczesny: The Polish goalie could have done better for the first goal he conceded but he grew in confidence as the match progressed. He made some outstanding saves to keep his team in the game. 7/10

Laurent Koscielny: The Frenchman was a beast in the first half, making a lot of crunchy challenges as well as some vital interceptions. 7/10

Per Mertesacker: The BFG worked in tandem with Koscielny but he was sloppy and he struggled a bit in a couple of occasions. He failed to anticipate the pass that led to Southampton’s equalizer. 6/10

Bacary Sagna: Bar his assist to Olivier Giroud for Arsenal’s first goal, Sagna had a torrid game and it was his lapse in concentration that led to Southampton’s equalizer. 5/10

Nacho Monreal: I’d really hoped that a consistent run of games would have made Monreal’s game better, but he put up his second worst Arsenal performance after that horror outing at the Etihad. He was bullied like a kid for the first goal and had a nightmarish game. Just when he had the chance to redeem himself from a Mikel Arteta pass inside the box, he launched his shot into orbit. 3/10

Kieran Gibbs: The Englishman didn’t play long enough to get a rating. N/A

MIDFIELD

Mikel Arteta: His return to full fitness was very timely but Arteta looked out of sorts and could dictate the tempo of the game for his side. He will come back to his best with a consistent run of games. 6/10

Mathieu Flamini: The Flamster was rested for the game against Coventry so that he could be fully fit for the game against Southampton. What did Arsenal get in return? – an inexplicable and extremely dimwitted two-footed lounge on Morgan Schneiderlein that made the referee send him off. He really let his team down. 5/10

Mesut Ozil: Ozil was one of Arsenal’s poorest performers in the first half but he returned to the pitch a rejuvenated man after some counsel from the manager. The German schemer was involved in everything good from an attacking perspective and he capped it up with an assist. 7/10

ATTACK

Santi Cazorla: The Spaniard is Arsenal most in-form player with four goals in four games. Despite the fact that Lukas Podolski had a stormer against Coventry, Cazorla replaced him on the left flank and did well to score a well-taken goal. 7/10

Serge Gnabry: Since breaking into the starting XI in the wake of Theo Walcott’s injury, the young German starlet has had a consistent run of games. However, he was very ineffectual in the course of the game but he was replaced by the Ox with 20 minutes left to spare.  6/10

Olivier Giroud: Lacked supply from his teammates in the first half but he helped his team defensively. He also scored a very improvised finish in a difficult situation. 7/10

The Ox and Lukas Podolski didn’t play long enough to get ratings.

Do you agree with these ratings? Please share yours with your comments.

Sayonara.

You can download the Gooner Daily  BlackBerry App to receive notifications on your Smart Phone when a post is published.

You can follow Gooner Daily on Twitter  @goonerdaily. I’ll follow back

Feel free to visit Gooner Daily’s  Facebook page and click on the like button.

You can also join Gooner Daily’s Mailing List to get notifications of new posts by email by clicking on the Follow button