Pain in the Arsenal
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Arsenal Vs Southampton: 5 things we learned – More than Unai Emery to blame

By Andrew Dowdeswell

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 23: Lucas Torreira of Arsenal reacts after Southampton's second goal during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Southampton FC at Emirates Stadium on November 23, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 23: Lucas Torreira of Arsenal reacts after Southampton's second goal during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Southampton FC at Emirates Stadium on November 23, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images) /
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LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 23: Unai Emery, Manager of Arsenal reacts during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Southampton FC at Emirates Stadium on November 23, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 23: Unai Emery, Manager of Arsenal reacts during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Southampton FC at Emirates Stadium on November 23, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images) /

3. Unai Emery out… for the millionth time

I am not sure how many times this needs to be said, but Arsenal must sack Unai Emery. In fact, they should have sacked him a long time ago, so now, with every passing minute that he remains in charge, the club prove their incompetence — more on this later.

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This was a typical Arsenal performance under Emery. They started slowly, the progression of play was extremely poor, unable to break lines consistently with smart, advancing passes, they then wrestled control of the game but lacked creativity in the final third, were bailed out by the strikers, and should have conceded far more than they did.

Southampton had 21 shots on Saturday. Southampton lost 9-0 to Leicester City, are second-bottom in the Premier League, and have Danny Ings up-front, who scored, incidentally. Arsenal have now allowed 45 shots in their last two home matches, against Southampton and Wolves. Whichever way you want to slice it, that is not good enough.

The underlying numbers are rubbish, the results are rubbish, the performances of the players are rubbish, the atmosphere around the club is rubbish, the team is rubbish. And there is one man to blame.