Arsenal 3-1 Southampton, player rating and match reaction

[HCZ_Reborn]

Raya 6.5 - Didn’t have much to do other than pick the ball out of his net, and there wasn’t much he could do about that.


Partey 6 - Physically strong and tried to support the attack the way White does but didn’t really have it in him


Saliba 6.5 - Not a lot to do


Gabriel 7 - Seemed to like the physicality of todays game and pushing forward


Calafiori 7 - Technically very good, won back possession and started attacks more than once



Jorginho 7 - Kept things ticking over



Rice 7 - Had more impact on our attacking play in the second half


Havertz 7.5 - Worked hard first half but clearly wasn’t comfortable in the hole and began to drift wide, strikers finish for the equaliser


Sterling 6 - Lacked the physicality to consistently beat his full back, and wasteful when he had shooting opportunities


Jesus 4 - And I think that’s generous, I think we need to consider buying him out of his contract


Saka 7.5 - Kept plugging away and was by far our most industrious attacker first half, got the goal for his efforts



Subs


Martinelli 8 - For the time he was on the pitch he was our best player, electric pace and physical strength


Trossard 7 - Worked hard, and certainly added more to proceedings than Sterling or Jesus


Merino 7 - Largely kept things ticking over much like Jorginho had


Tomiyasu and Kiwior - 6.5


To say I was underwhelmed would be an understatement, the lineup was a complete joke and it’s only because Arteta saw the extent of his folly and changed things early that this wasn’t dropped points. Not because Southampton were good, they were hopeless. The only thing they were good for apart from the goal that came out of nowhere was diving and fouling. Horrible bunch of cheats, the sooner they are back in the championship the better I think.


I don’t know, maybe I’m being harsh but I expect games like this to be an easy three points and the fact that we had to come from behind results from an unnecessarily poor lineup, the type Arteta kept monkeying around with at the beginning of the season. It doesn’t matter if we are playing a team that is championship level at best, if you don’t play players in their correct position you come unstuck.

[dostoy]

Jesus will be gone next summer but there is no chance of Arsenal buying him out.

It was harder than it should have been but when Timber or White return, things will be better.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Defensive side of things don’t worry me, we can buy as many defenders as we like, we are still going to leave ourselves vulnerable to the goal on the break if we have to push everyone up because the attacking players are unwilling or incapable

Jesus, well that was hyperbole, but I sure as hell hope he’s gone by next summer (or preferably sooner….if we get some interest from the Saudi pro league)

Sterling is going to be a waste of a player but we’ve only got him on loan. If you can’t produce against Southampton, you can’t produce full stop

[HCZ_Reborn]

Also on ref watch I was too far away to see it at the time, but clear foul on Sterling leading up to their goal. If they chalked off our goal at Old Trafford two years ago they should have chalked this off, but as far as I can see VAR didn’t even look at it. Yet they went into forensic mode trying to chalk off Martinelli’s goal