Arsenal: 4 Things We Learned From Southampton Draw

Arsenal ended their losing streak with a 1-1 Premier League draw with Southampton.

Never before in the history of the club had Arsenal lost five consecutive home league matches. One unwanted record was thankfully not set on Wednesday.

Not turning up at all for the first half, Southampton saw swathes of possession in all areas of the pitch, dictating the play and keeping Arsenal at an arm’s length.

Their dominance paid off when Theo Walcott exploited the space between Gabriel and Kieran Tierney to run through on goal and chip the onrushing Bernd Leno. At this stage, heads did their usual drop from back to front, as the hosts could only carve out half-decent openings before the break.

Improved in the second half as the Saints willingly dropped off, some sublime work from Bukayo Saka down the left flank saw him beat three men as he charged towards the box, with the ball eventually falling to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who calmly slotted beyond Alex McCarthy.

https://twitter.com/Aubameyang7/status/1339313549626273793

Arsenal actually scored a goal. From open play, too.

Believing this could be the catalyst for a shift in narrative for the season, previous uncertainties crept back in less than ten minutes later, as Gabriel was sent for an early shower after needlessly hauling down Walcott for his second yellow card of the evening.

Nathan Redmond came closest to making the visitors’ waves of attack pay off having struck the bar, while Rob Holding came within inches of snatching an unlikely win when he too hit the woodwork.

Here’s what we learned from the 1-1 draw.

Not Much Has Changed

A glance at the result shows one team bang in form could only muster a 1-1 draw away at a side languishing in 15th place and without a single point from their previous four home league matches.

Good, right? Unfortunately not.

Arsenal were still desperately poor for the vast majority of the game, only picking up the pace after the break when Southampton invited it. History wasn’t made at the Emirates, yet it had a strong whiff of deja vu.

Mohamed Elneny was way off the pace in midfield and Dani Ceballos added something different with a broader array of line-breaking passing, together culminating in a similarly languid use of the ball. Every attack fluttered at the final hurdle, with no ball retention anywhere across the pitch and each attack lasting in the region of seven seconds (probably).

Mikel Arteta tried to change things up against the Saints. Not much altered.

Bukayo Saka is All Arsenal Have

Scoring a goal – one from open play at that – was not the result of a vastly improved team performance full of vigour and invention. It was because of Saka.

One magnificent run from the touchline saw him beat three men and forge the opening for Eddie Nketiah and Aubameyang to link. One man’s intuition and drive.

Take that out of the game and what else was there to admire from Arsenal?

Individual moments of brilliance are all this side has to fall back on. What’s worse, the only one capable of producing such a moment is this 19-year-old forward-cum-wing-back asked to bear the burden that this team has placed on his shoulders.

It’s not his to bear, yet it’s only him carrying it. Arsenal would be nowhere without him.

As supporters lie in wait for a squad overhaul that’s been overdue by a number of years now, not one of those fans will put down any name other than Saka’s first.

Confidence Shot to Pieces

What was painstakingly evident on Wednesday was that there was one side brimming with confidence, not only in themselves, but with each other, and the other team shot to pieces and glumly soul-searching.

If you’re a confident team, you start football matches well. Arsenal don’t do that. They can’t do that. Similarly against Burnley, the spell after the break was the best period of the game.

It takes 45 minutes for the team to kick into gear, get a feel for the match and start pinging the ball around with pace. Analyse until hell freezes over, it’s down to having zero self-belief.

Precious few members of this squad still have the minor inklings of confidence, namely Saka, although his awareness of his ability will flounder as the rest of the team continue to trudge through matches in first gear.

The only thing that boosts confidence is victories. Arsenal can’t buy one of those at the minute.

All that said, they’re the victims of their own downfall…

Dearth of Discipline

The immediate questions asked after the draw will centre around the role Arteta is having in the string of red cards his side are accruing. Bad enough as a footballing side, whatever faint hopes there may be winning matches can evaporate entirely until the side learn how to finish games with ten men.

At this stage, when Arsenal are in their worst form for decades, the bare minimum you can do is try and contain emotions and avoid either rash challenges or silly errors. In a game of fine margins, something as stupidly simple as having 11 players on the pitch provides far greater platform to be a threat.

Is Arteta responsible? It’s wrong to presume so, unless you lay the torrid run of form entirely on his shoulders.

A combination of individual idiocy and over-commitment seems the likely reason. When the chips are down, frustration creeps in and it boils over into the players’ reaction. In terms of Gabriel, the way he plays always sees him at risk of multiple yellow cards. Doesn’t mean it isn’t poor from him, however.

Was Wednesday better? Marginally. Arsenal dug in and defended balls into the box well having been reduced to ten, and the performance after the break was improved, but it’s another limp overall display to add to a season that shows but a flickering of resurrection.