Arsenal 0-0 Saints - Reaction

Great closing down , quick breaks albeit wasteful, and Fraser back at his commanding best.

COYR

Decent performance tonight. 1st half we were the more likely to score and 2nd half they pressed on to us as we dropped back. I was in the prawn sandwich seats behind Forster's goal and along with the 1st half point blank save from Ozil he put in a world class performance 2nd half. It was very similar to last years game without the inevitable sucker punch at the end.

Back four all good, vic and Romeu good but wasteful in possession. Long fed off scraps and Mane needs a goal. All in all with Davis and Austin fit and Classie to return we are good enough for top 6 this season.

Big game Saturday now.

Crying shame that Austin was injured; was set up for him to mug the game off them.

Watching Liverpool on MOTD Jesus their defence is an absolute shambles could we actual finish above them this season? Oh and that goal from Vardy was outrageous if only Shane Long only had that in his locker when playing for saints.

Watching Liverpool on MOTD Jesus their defence is an absolute shambles could we actual finish above them this season? Oh and that goal from Vardy was outrageous if only Shane Long only had that in his locker when playing for saints.

(yes, I know it's not as stunning as Vardy's effort this evening, but....)

Forster was class tonight, without doubt my man of the match. Have to be fair though he did get a bit lucky with some of those saves, particularly compared to the one Joe Hart made tonight.

Shame Austin wasn't fit this evening, there were 2 or 3 chances we had that I wish fell to him instead.

Most one-sided MOTM poll ever?

Solid point to keep our good run going, especially as Mané, Tadić and Long offered nothing. Forster incredible. Romeu and Wanyama very good.

Most one-sided MOTM poll ever?

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?36237-Leeds-v-Saints-MotM#.VrFLzlrfWrU

It's just about beating the previous record at the moment.

Brilliant start to the game by us with a high tempo pressing game that once again showed that Arsenal are not all that if you hurry them. Thought we wasted quite a lot of opportunities in the first half. They gave up possession in dangerous areas and we didn't use the ball well. Mane just isn't doing the right things. He is the key. If he can just start to make the right choices and get the right luck we could beat anyone. Unfortunately he hasn't done either of those things for a while.

 

Second half we seemed to go into our shell a little. Romeu got a little tired perhaps, although I thought he had a great game. Not sure the subs helped us at all. Juanmi out of position and god knows how many attackers left our midfield a little exposed. That said we ran hard and fought to the end. Excellent effort.

 

Forster will quite rightly get the plaudits, but the likes of Wanayama, Virgil, Bertrand and Soares all did very well.

 

My only moan would be the lack of effort by Tadic to close men down on a few occasions. Check out how little he does to stop the cross for the Kachelny headed chance. fOx like.

Chez you watched the same game as I did.

Arsenal had more than enough chances to win comfortably. The fact that they didn't is down to the brilliance of our keeper.

So why did we allow Arsenal so many chances. Yes there was great running by the Arsenal forwards, but a lot of our problems were self inflicted. How many times did we lose possession in great positions allowing Arsenal to counter.

My biggest problem is why did Tadic start. Yes he can score or create something, but he doesn't close down space or players quick enough. He allowed Arsenal too much room down our left flank. He allowed a dangerous wall pass at the end of the first. When Targett came on, he gave Tadic a lesson in how to defend.

Yes I'm pleased to come home with Saints achieving their first point I've seen at the Emirates, but why did we change the system to a 4-2-3-1. Tadic should not have started instead of Targett. In my opinion this allowed Arsenal to much space and we were defensively less compact.

My second problem was with the taking off of JWP who was playing well and bringing on Juanmi?? Yes I thought Juanmi did well, but by removing JWP meant that we had no dead ball specialist.

Romeu did some great work. Holding the ball in tight areas. Creating space from nothing, but then he would give the ball away cheaply and he needs to improve in this area and that header back into our box in the first 5 minutes.

All in all a great night, thanks Frazer!

Interesting Solent said Tadic put in a good shift defensively today.

I watched Tadic most of the game. That might be a good shift for Tadic, but somebody has got to get hold of him and show how to defend and close down properly.

Austin needs to be on the field, he's the difference between us being a top team and a 11-20 team. We are very good up until the point of puting the ball in the net. Austin is exactly that guy, we may have won today with him.

Chez you watched the same game as I did.

 

Arsenal had more than enough chances to win comfortably. The fact that they didn't is down to the brilliance of our keeper.

 

So why did we allow Arsenal so many chances. Yes there was great running by the Arsenal forwards, but a lot of our problems were self inflicted. How many times did we lose possession in great positions allowing Arsenal to counter.

 

My biggest problem is why did Tadic start. Yes he can score or create something, but he doesn't close down space or players quick enough. He allowed Arsenal too much room down our left flank. He allowed a dangerous wall pass at the end of the first. When Targett came on, he gave Tadic a lesson in how to defend.

 

Yes I'm pleased to come home with Saints achieving their first point I've seen at the Emirates, but why did we change the system to a 4-2-3-1. Tadic should not have started instead of Targett. In my opinion this allowed Arsenal to much space and we were defensively less compact.

 

My second problem was with the taking off of JWP who was playing well and bringing on Juanmi?? Yes I thought Juanmi did well, but by removing JWP meant that we had no dead ball specialist.

 

Romeu did some great work. Holding the ball in tight areas. Creating space from nothing, but then he would give the ball away cheaply and he needs to improve in this area and that header back into our box in the first 5 minutes.

 

All in all a great night, thanks Frazer!

errr well Targett is a defender and Tadic is a creative attacking player so this shouldn't be a surprise. I don't get why people have a problem with Tadic playing I doubt Koeman's plan was to just defend for 90 minutes so having Tadic in a front three to try and create something for Mane and Long was vital seeing as we were playing three DM in the absence of Davis. If you play Tadic for his creative skills you pretty much except he won't be that solid defensively (though having watched him I don't think he is nearly as bad as the lazy east European tag some people want to give him). Once it became clear we were under the cosh in the second half Koeman took Tadic off.

Whinging Wenger again !....he's always got something to complain about.....even without " fantastic Forster"... Arsenal had enough clear chances to have won comfortably.

We squandered the few goal chances we did have, but this one point was well-deserved anyway.

Great defensive back-line, JWP is really improving at last and Romeu looks worth his place, too.

There's a video already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7w24PSfeXY

Austin needs to be on the field, he's the difference between us being a top team and a 11-20 team. We are very good up until the point of puting the ball in the net. Austin is exactly that guy, we may have won today with him.

so after 24 games weare 7th and CA has played a grand total of 7 minutes and you decide we are a bottom half team? how do you come to that conclusion?

Hear Austin has tweaked the same hamstring which is a bit of a worry

 

All in all a great night, thanks Frazer!

And thanks to Fraser too. Such a super fan and "close to the club" coach you don't even know the players names.

so after 24 games weare 7th and CA has played a grand total of 7 minutes and you decide we are a bottom half team? how do you come to that conclusion?

He's saying more than that - we're on a par with 20th place without him. Mental.

Fantastic, team-spirited, digging in performance, with Forster and Wanyama my highlights, along with John Terry-esque Fonte (bandage wise). And i won a multiple bet of well over 100 quid from a two quid stake. nice.

obviously don't need to mention FF, van dijk, fonte, wanyama and bertrand.

felt romeu was excellent on the ball, excellent defensively, his final pass 3-4 times was horrendous.

long and mane should have troubled much more. mane won lots of balls, but when either of them were in the final third their passing, decision making and shooting were way off par.

thought tadic was good but sat too far back (compromise you make by being more defensive...) . thought he could have troubled bellerin a lot more - not for pace, but could have turned him sideways had he been playing near corner flag

cedric good, little more freedom to go behind , played it cool from the back

ward prowse excellent defensively I thought. won several headers, the goal line clearance, made tackles in front of our D. thougnt he was v good but wasteful up front.

the match could overall have done with a touch of class in the final third. davis in for long and more composure from romeu and mane, and we could have won that game.

Mane was the one downer. Didn't like his attitude. And he should be a much better finisher. otherwise a great night to be a saint.

Mane was the one downer. Didn't like his attitude. And he should be a much better finisher. otherwise a great night to be a saint.

What is it you don't like about his attitude? He busted a gut last night; as he does most games; does a lot of good things but at the moment can't find the net. I just don't get the recent bagging of Mane.

Mane was the one downer. Didn't like his attitude. And he should be a much better finisher. otherwise a great night to be a saint.

Thats ridiculous.

He wasn't good in front of goal (ditto Long whose touch was poor all night) but both front players put a good shift in.

Me neither. Classic case of a guy snatching at chances due to a lack of confidence. He is still making the runs and getting himself in good positions. Must be a nightmare to play against. I think he would have been the difference last night if it wasnt for the fact they have Bellerin who is extremely quick.

Mane scares the hell out of the opposition but as everyone else says, the end product just isn't there at the moment.

Shane Long, on the other hand scares the hell out of both teams. That accidental back-heel to put Arsenal through on goal when he was running at the centre-halves was incredible.

Good away performances this season against the big boys. Beat Chelsea and Man U. Draws against Liverpool and Arsenal. Man City - well, one day hopefully!!!

Forster polled 93% motm. Has anyone else ever polled higher?

The way to beat Arsenal is already clear to Koeman; close them down and don't allow them the space to play their passing game. It worked when we beat them at St Mary's on Boxing Day and it worked again last night. The difference between the two matches though, was that we were less effective in midfield and therefore lacked the same intensity that fed our strikers in that match. This was fine margins, but I lay the blame on some sloppy passes losing possession and I think that we missed either Davis or Clasie, who would have given us some extra speed and bite. We were pretty solid with Wanyama and Romeu together, but Tadic and J-WP don't possess the terrier-like qualities that Davis and Clasie do.

But it was a creditable performance by the team, where player availability on both sides determined Koeman's tactics, which he got spot on.

It was a colossal performance from Forster, but a pity that Long and Mane were off-colour when it came to putting the ball in the net. One feels that if available, Austin would have had at least one goal from the chances that presented themselves.

But only a short time after there had been dire forecasts of impending doom from some on here, even predictions of a relegation dog-fight, we now have 10 points from 4 matches, have beaten United away, held Arsenal for an away draw, scored 6 goals and conceded none. Other teams around us still have the distractions of Cup matches to tire their teams or to inflict injuries and suspensions on players, and that has to be weighed against the disappointment of having been knocked out of both competitions. Liverpool in particular must have suffered some effects and now we have risen above them. If we can overtake West Ham and maintain this sort of form, then 6th place beckons, or failing that, 7th for the second year on the trot would be quite an achievement.

so after 24 games weare 7th and CA has played a grand total of 7 minutes and you decide we are a bottom half team? how do you come to that conclusion?

Ok. My post was poorly written. My real point was that with Austin we are challenging for a top 5 spot in my opinion. Without him we are more like a 10-12 team, again just my opinion. We create and play good defense now, its the finishing he brings that gives us a step up. I certainly didn't mean to say we are the equal of Villa and Sunderland, that was my mistake in the way I wrote the post.

Good away performances this season against the big boys. Beat Chelsea and Man U. Draws against Liverpool and Arsenal. Man City - well, one day hopefully!!!

We still have Leicester away to look forward to. At the moment there's nobody bigger!

What is it you don't like about his attitude? He busted a gut last night; as he does most games; does a lot of good things but at the moment can't find the net. I just don't get the recent bagging of Mane.

maybe i was a bit rash. Just thought he was having a bit of a moan at service a little too often. But you're right, he just needs a break.

Most one-sided MOTM poll ever?

The Kelvin davis one at 91.89% is a bit lower than Forster's 92.89, but a quick z test shows the difference isn't statistically significant! Alas, it must be a draw for now.

Quite interesting this is video from last seasons game vs Arsenal Forster was pretty bloody good that day to

Ok. My post was poorly written. My real point was that with Austin we are challenging for a top 5 spot in my opinion. Without him we are more like a 10-12 team, again just my opinion. We create and play good defense now, its the finishing he brings that gives us a step up. I certainly didn't mean to say we are the equal of Villa and Sunderland, that was my mistake in the way I wrote the post.

charlie austin is good but he won't gain you 7 places on the table.......

he is one type of finisher, that doesn't mean he is every type of finisher.

people were lambasting the decision to put on pelle last night, but I thought it was genius. the whole problem was we weren't holding the ball up to give time for the pacey finishers to get forward. pelle provided that option by holding the ball up, even though he only did it 2-3 times.

my point is different finishers are good for different circumstances. I wouldn't put charlie austin in my team every week as if he is going to be a miracle maker. I don't think he's good enough to 'create your team around him'. same as I wouldn't put pelle or long in automatically, depends on the opposition and our squad.

he is good. excellent in fact. but I think we have a very good squad without him here. at least he does provide someone who is used to putting the ball in the back of the net, and also gives a chance to drop players (pelle) who are not scoring.

My expectations for him this season are he'll give the squad a boost and some confidence, he'll get a few goals, and he'll enable the squad to rotate. not much more expectations than that. hopefully given preseason and a few months with the rest of the boys, he will be exceptional and a real leader for us next few seasons.

Do you think we're safe yet ?

No. Not until we get past 40 points or are mathematically safe.

Absolutely. But the way he just dismissed the other two sides like they are nothing.

 

Leicester are bang on. Imagine them beating city at the weekend and go 6 points clear. But they are not even worth considering to a paid pundit ffs

If Leicester were to win the Premier, they would soon be airbrushed out of history.

Match highlights here ( not sure if already posted)

http://www.fullmatchesandshows.com/2016/02/02/arsenal-vs-southampton-highlights-full-match/

We had 33% possession apparently, which despite the positive result showed a real lack of general cohesiveness all game. In all honesty we deserved to get thumped but wasteful finishing and the great FF meant somehow we didn't concede - RK admitted to having been lucky post match - I love the guys no nonsense honesty. He had a spat with Wenger in the tunnel after the match apparently, Wenger said to the ref "you're always the same", RK heard this and replied "YOU'RE always the same - you had 10 chances to score and didn't take one of them so why blame them...." (the officials)

We had 33% possession apparently, which despite the positive result showed a real lack of general cohesiveness all game. In all honesty we deserved to get thumped but wasteful finishing and the great FF meant somehow we didn't concede - RK admitted to having been lucky post match - I love the guys no nonsense honesty. He had a spat with Wenger in the tunnel after the match apparently, Wenger said to the ref "you're always the same", RK heard this and replied "YOU'RE always the same - you had 10 chances to score and didn't take one of them so why blame them...." (the officials)

Someone will confirm but I think we had very low possession stats against Arse in the 4-0 thumping.

We clearly did not deserve to get thumped - FF is part of the team not a happy accident. His work deserved a point in itself.

No. Not until we get past 40 points or are mathematically safe.

I can't see Norwich getting to 40 points 17th at best.

If you and your vocal minority hadn't stopped O'Neil coming back .....

Will you renew your Carrow ST if Championship can you handle being yoyo club?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We had 33% possession apparently, which despite the positive result showed a real lack of general cohesiveness all game. In all honesty we deserved to get thumped but wasteful finishing and the great FF meant somehow we didn't concede - RK admitted to having been lucky post match - I love the guys no nonsense honesty. He had a spat with Wenger in the tunnel after the match apparently, Wenger said to the ref "you're always the same", RK heard this and replied "YOU'RE always the same - you had 10 chances to score and didn't take one of them so why blame them...." (the officials)

Possession stats are meaningless, how does that equate to the fact we deserved to get thumped? We clearly didn't. It's down to us that they struggled to break us down, we were very compact and tight - not much space for them to play in. We were more than happy for them to have the ball in non-threatening area's, and that's where most of the stats will have built up from. At the end of the day, if you go to Arsenal and take them on with their passing game then you will get thrashed. Arsenal will out pass most teams and will have more possession most weeks, but that doesn't equate to results.

As CB said above, we had low possession v Arsenal at home and we thrashed them. 35% possession to be exact.

You're doing our display an enormous disservice if that's what you think.

Possession stats are meaningless, how does that equate to the fact we deserved to get thumped? We clearly didn't. It's down to us that they struggled to break us down, we were very compact and tight - not much space for them to play in. We were more than happy for them to have the ball in non-threatening area's, and that's where most of the stats will have built up from. At the end of the day, if you go to Arsenal and take them on with their passing game then you will get thrashed. Arsenal will out pass most teams and will have more possession most weeks, but that doesn't equate to results.

 

As CB said above, we had low possession v Arsenal at home and we thrashed them. 35% possession to be exact.

 

You're doing our display an enormous disservice if that's what you think.

To back-up what you say, I bet Leicester are near the bottom of the average possession stats...

Leicester appear to be 3rd bottom: http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/ballbesitz/wettbewerb/GB1/saison_id/2015/plus/1

The possession figure does not in itself mean we should have got beat - thats not what I said if you read it properly.... I've been watching this game long enough to know raw stats aren't the whole story by any means, but based on all the factors, Arsenal created enough situations to have won the game comfortably. If we had lost 1-0 would anyone have said the result was unfair ? The second half in particular was backs to the wall for a long period, and great credit to our players for the effort in thwarting some of the mosted gifted players in the PL - the spirit was amazing - i remember Van Dijk's last ditch tackle that fell to Giroud I think who then brought another great save by FF and the ball went behind for a corner - Van Dijk gave a fist pump like he'd just scored, great stuff.

I take the point that playing Arsenal you're gonna be without the ball for most of the game though....

Possession stats are meaningless, how does that equate to the fact we deserved to get thumped? We clearly didn't. It's down to us that they struggled to break us down, we were very compact and tight - not much space for them to play in. We were more than happy for them to have the ball in non-threatening area's, and that's where most of the stats will have built up from. At the end of the day, if you go to Arsenal and take them on with their passing game then you will get thrashed. Arsenal will out pass most teams and will have more possession most weeks, but that doesn't equate to results.

 

As CB said above, we had low possession v Arsenal at home and we thrashed them. 35% possession to be exact.

 

You're doing our display an enormous disservice if that's what you think.

Great battling point but you're talking utter c**p . The idea we were controlled and compact, limiting Arsenal to nonthreatening areas is nonsense. They had us against the ropes at times and had more than enough chances in the second half to win the game comfortably. It was much more frantic than you imply. Even Koeman admitted we were poor in protecting Forster -and the performance was out of step with our usual defensive displays.

Great battling point but you're talking utter c**p . The idea we were controlled and compact, limiting Arsenal to nonthreatening areas is nonsense. They had us against the ropes at times and had more than enough chances in the second half to win the game comfortably. It was much more frantic than you imply. Even Koeman admitted we were poor in protecting Forster -and the performance was out of step with our usual defensive displays.

You're so eloquent with the way you put your views forward and dismiss others. I think you're always going to be on the ropes at times at Arsenal, but keeping a compact shape for a good % of the game does help. I felt we were well organised and disciplined in our positional play. we were caught out once or twice, and luckily we had Fraser between the sticks - but I think our general display was deserving of a point.

I've only just watched the highlights, been struggling all week with tax deadline day and to be honest, forgot we were even playing last night. What a performance from Forster and the defence. On another day, that could easily have been an absolute reaming.

You're so eloquent with the way you put your views forward and dismiss others. I think you're always going to be on the ropes at times at Arsenal, but keeping a compact shape for a good % of the game does help. I felt we were well organised and disciplined in our positional play. we were caught out once or twice, and luckily we had Fraser between the sticks - but I think our general display was deserving of a point.

I didn't say it was undeserved and we were always dangerous on the break, save for a bit of composure with the final ball. However, it was a much more frantic, bodies-on-the-line defensive display than you imply -even against Arsenal (thought this is now the 3rd consecutive league game in which they've fired blanks). Being compact is forcing teams to play in front of you and keeping chances to a minimum, even if it means conceding plenty of possession, not letting sides get in behind and through you, as Arsenal did numerous times. Not just once or twice.

If you don't believe me, ask Koeman: "'Normally it is more difficult for opponents to create those kind of chances against us. We didn't play well, but we fight unbelievable, we had an unbelievable spirit today".

What were the exact words to that Cedric song that a few lads spent 15 minutes trying to get going?

It was something like this:

He's our Cedric

Going down the right wing he's electric

He does things we never expected

And he shits on Clyne