History tells us that St. Mary’s is a difficult ground to visit judging from the team’s recent results there. However, with Southampton in poor form and the Gunners high in confidence after their win against Manchester City, I expected Arsene Wenger’s men to give a good account of themselves but what I witnessed was a shitefest.
The game’s opener was a wonder strike from some Curacao bloke called Martina Hingis or something, but the goal reminded me a lot of Michael Essien’s swerving shot that went past Jens Lehmann some years ago. Maybe Petr Cech’s vision was impaired by bodies in the box, but I’d take nothing away from a good goal when I see one.
So it’s 1-0 for the home side and I was waiting for the Gunners to respond but they were so flat. Nothing just worked for the lads and Southampton almost scored the second when James Ward-Prowse’s cross was Kouyated in by Virgil van Dijk. The offside flag spared Cech’s blushes but he was beaten by a defender yet again and received a knock in the process.
With Arsenal failing to create anything from an attacking perspective, Southampton continued to press on and Shane Long latched onto Sadio Mane’s pass that went through Per Mertesacker’s legs (smh!) to side-foot the ball past Cech. He tripped Laurent Koscielny in the build up to that goal and Arsenal tried to appeal but the ref was having none of it. The question would be how did the defenders allow Mane that much time to pick his spot and deliver the pass?
Injury was added to insult when Jose Fonte was unmarked in the six-yard box and he sent a bullet header past Cech to make it three. Late on, Long completed Arsenal’s misery with a shot that went through Cech’s legs to add some icing on the cake for the Saints.
So with high-flying Leicester finally subdued by Liverpool, all Arsenal needed was to pick up three points last night to stay on top of the table. There would have been talk of how they can really go all the way to clinch the Premier League but this morning, doubts are in the air yet again, that they’d bottle it as they’ve always done. It’s now looking like a case of raising the fan’s hopes and messing them up when it matters.
Arsene Wenger’s side was an absolute disgrace against Southampton. Let’s hope they can make amends against Bournemouth when they come to town on Monday night.
Sayonara.
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