Arsenal Vs. Southampton: Arsene Wenger’s Balancing Act

Arsenal looked devoid of plans, preparation and poise on Saturday against Southampton, perhaps suggesting that Arsene Wenger is juggling a balancing act.

Throughout his Arsenal tenure, Arsene Wenger has shown that he knows as well as anyone that a difference-maker in the title chase is winning when you’re not playing well when you can’t close out the game when it seems as if you’re heading towards the certainty of a loss, or tie.

How many times did we see Alex Ferguson will United to victory on nights that just seemed to not go their way?

Enter Fergie time.

Yes, today’s match was well, underwhelming. We all expected more, didn’t we? How could you not? But the main priority of the day was not to keep falling behind the league leaders and Wenger was able to accomplish that.

We all wanted to see the new signings perform; it’s not every day that Wenger goes out with a shopping list and remembers his checkbook.

For some reason, Wenger strikes me as a checkbook kind of guy.

And it took 90+ minutes and a questionable penalty kick to be slotted home by Santi Cazorla to ensure 3 points against a confident and deserving Southampton side.

It’s live to fight another day so to speak.

I was already starting to do that math on how much ground we’d need to make up on City in order to stay in the title race.

I know it’s early in the season, but did you wake up for the Manchester Derby? Now that had two teams that would have ruined Arsenal’s afternoon with little indifference.

The blows thrown by both Manchester teams during the match were not only impressive but sent a warning to all those chasing the title.

Criticism of Lucas Perez is sure to begin, but what realistically could the striker have done? He was stranded, left isolated for the majority of the time he was on the field.

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Wenger’s decision to continue to start Walcott and Chamberlain on the wings yielded frustrating results. I’ve recently written about the hindrance that both players are becoming for the team, and they did nothing to justify their position in the starting XI.

Lucas Perez suffered the effects of a stale performance from Arsenal’s wide men. He was the symptom of a more grave and systemic disease.

He had no assistance from two players that have a combined experience of 15 years at Arsenal.

It seemed as if not a single cross on target by the wide men. Heck, crosses struggled to stay in bounds at times.

But even if Arsenal could, why is their plan A of attack to swing in an aerial ball?

Why not try and release Perez behind space or play into Perez so he could take a shot from outside that box with that left foot?

Perez would have benefited from having Alexis and Iwobi being mischievous on the wings. They’re more dynamic players that he could link up with and would have helped stretch the defense for Perez to find space.

During the Gunners’ counterattacks, the combination of Ozil, Perez, Walcott, and Chamberlain was far too disconnected to bring about clear goal scoring opportunities.

Ozil and Perez need some time to develop an understanding, it must be given time. This match was far too soon for that, especially with Ozil being gone on international duty.

But if and when that partnership can begin to develop, Ozil will finally have a striker with the proper pace and style to latch onto Ozil’s well-timed through balls. And that’s a tantalizing factor.

The spine of the squad also seemed unsettled as Xhaka was left on the bench.

For me, he’s an automatic starter and future club captain.

The man presents order and leadership on the pitch and links our play between defense and offense with his variety of short and long passes. His play expands and compresses the defense and midfield.

Perhaps with Xhaka on the field, there may have been more space would have been available for Perez to exploit.

Perhaps Wenger decided to show confidence in a team he knew could get the resulted needed with an injury ridden PSG looming early next week.

Wenger’s an intelligent man; he is nicknamed Le Professor after all.

He realizes the significance of the influx of talent to the premier league regarding players and managers.

Wenger also knows that all these managers have Champions League and the EPL title in mind, and so does Wenger.

He’s pieced together something that resembles an able-bodied team to challenge for the league title since last winning it in 2004.

Next: Arsenal Lucas Perez Definitely Trumps Carlos Bacca

Well, at least if he hasn’t it’s the best chance he’s going to get heading into the final year of his contract.