Aaaaaaaaand things are back to normal. After we finally played a really good game against Newcastle, where for the most part all aspects of our team looked really good, today we were back to playing shit football and we deservedly got a shitty result. Except for the first 10 minutes of the game in which we started pretty brightly and our passing looked sharp, the rest of the game our performance was chaotic. The link in the middle of the pitch that our midfielders were supposed to create between our offense and our defense was non existent. The result was a constant loss of possession; very few chances for our forwards; and a lot of pressure on our defense.
The defense today was all over the place. We could have easily leaked more than one goal. Because of our inability to keep possession for long periods of the game, our defense was constantly under pressure. The first goal we conceded was an absolute joke in the sense that the ball should have been cleared long before Ramirez put it in the back of our net. Instead, all of our defenders looked panicked and the result was Southampton's first goal. Things didn't improve defensively in the second half either. We were continuously breached on the left side of our defense, and Puncheon was toying with our defenders. He missed a great opportunity midway through the second half when i thought he would score for sure, instead he kicked the ball right at Szczesny. Regardless of the fact that we didn't concede a second goal in the game, our defense looked anything but solid. There was a sense of nervousness every time we had to clear the ball, none of our defenders played with enough confidence. I thought Southampton were running rampant on Gibbs's side especially in the second half. He was unnoticeable for large periods of the game and blew one of the few chances we created offensively in the second half. Sagna also got beat more than once throughout the game, same goes for Koscielny and Vermaelen. I can't say that any of our defenders played anything close to a good game.
Our midfield was also horrendous. As good as we played against Newcastle, today nothing was working for us in the middle of the pitch. You can count on one hand the chances we created for the whole game. We never controlled the game like we normally do. We constantly lost the ball in the middle of the field. At times the game was super boring today. Cazorla wasn't nearly as active as he was 3 days ago. A lot of his passes were a bit off. Same goes for Podolski: after a great game against the Magpies, today he was invincible. I can't remember even one moment where he was threatening to either score or put someone in a goalscoring position. Wilshere put a lot of effort, but was also largely ineffective throughout the game. He got a bit bruised with some tough challenges on him, but he never got into a rhythm as far as his passing. Arteta was doing his normal dirty defensive work, he had a chance to shoot at goal in the second half, but he was way off target.
Oxlade- Chamberlain started brightly in the first half and was very active on the wing. He had a lot of runs on Southampton left side but his final pass was lacking. He slowly faded away in the second half and struggled with creating anything threatening. Theo also had a tough game. He didn't have a lot of service but the few chances he got, he didn't do much with. A telling sign about his and the team's performance, was a cross he attempted in the second half, where his cross went all the way into the crowd.
Uncharacteristically for Wenger, he actually made an early change and put Giroud in at the 58th minute. Too bad the Frenchman was super inneffective and barely made any impact. The game was as good as over, as soon as we put our "super subs" Gervinho and Ramsey. Gervinho's first job was to fall twice in succession with no one even close to him, he will be remembered with one shot at goal and that was about it. Ramsey didn't have any impact either which is not surprise for anyone. The fact that we count on Gervinho and Ramsey to turn around a game for us is straight up sad. Gervinho was hopeless and Ramsey has been really far from his best pretty much the whole season.
When you consider that we have pretty much no squad rotation, it is not surprising that this team is struggling for consistency. Unless someone gets injured, our back four stays the same every game. Even fucking Tottenham rotates their back four almost every game. When you look at our bench today, the only guy who i feel could have made a difference and give us a spark, was Rosicky. Apparently Wenger felt Gervinho gives us a better chance which is laughable. I have written about this before: every team in the top four rotates their squad constantly, thus ensuring that there are more than 11 guys who can contribute effectively throughout the season. Wenger is the only coach that if he could, he would play the same eleven the whole fucking season. The result is: a few wins here and there that give the fans some hope that we can compete with the top teams, but the reality is: constant mediocrity as far as competing for a league title or any other trophy for that matter.
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