Arsenal 3-0 Southampton: 4 negatives for Arteta’s side

Just what the doctor ordered. While the three points were the most important, there is no denying that winning in that fashion was also richly needed for this Arsenal team.

And what a win it was.

Welcoming Southampton to fortress Emirates, once Arsenal got a foothold in the match on 21 minutes it was full steam ahead to a richly deserved Premier League win.

Alexandre Lacazette finished off a sweeping move that started from the boot of Aaron Ramsdale and six passes later was in the back of Willy Caballero’s net. Breaking the Saints’ press for the first time in the match, it ended with the Gunners’ No. 9 thumped home from inside the box in delightful fashion.

Arsenal: 4 negative points as Mikel Arteta’s side secure thumping 3-0 Premier League win over Southampton at the Emirates Stadium

Just six minutes later and the scoreline was doubled. Keeping up the pressure, Kieran Tierney’s miscontrol in the penalty area worked in his favour as at the second attempt he managed to dink the ball into the path of the onrushing Martin Odegaard to head home.

Three goals in three matches for the Norwegian have seen him score with his right foot, left foot and now his header. Oh how Arsenal have longed for goals from midfield.

After the break, and indeed before it, Arsenal should have been way out of sight. Once everything clicked and Southampton completely downed tools there was some glorious football on display with chances going begging left right and centre.

Gabriel wrapped things up with a trademark towering header on what was a thoroughly enjoyable night for Arsenal. But, as ever, not all was perfect. We have to find some balance across this season as this team is far from the finished article, with four standout areas of negativity.

(it’s still quite obviously a positive win)

1. Opening 15 Minutes of Southampton’s High Pressing

Arsenal started this game as poorly as Southampton started it well.

Consistently ranking in the top end of the Premier League for high pressures, while Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side are struggling for goals and incapable of keeping them out, it was known from the off how they would approach this game.

Clearly the results and performances of recent weeks had impacted the players. They looked nervy. Gabriel started off in sloppy fashion with a couple of loose passes, much like the rest of the back four, and they could not break through a well organised Saints press.

Keeping them penned into their own half, what credit you can give to Arsenal is the way they kept plugging away to find those openings. However, structurally they weren’t set up in a way to counter that with too much vacancy in midfield and the defenders not having the options on the ball to play out.

Benjamin White, who also started shakily, kept looking for a teammate only to have Takehiro Tomiyasu and Aaron Ramsdale as his options.

Put it down to a lack of confidence? Most likely, but Arsenal should not be struggling to even enter the attacking third of the pitch on home soil against a side like Southampton.

Continued on next page…

2. Xhaka & Partey Limited What Arsenal Could do From Midfield

In the case of Xhaka, he still looks off the pace physically. In the first half he gave the ball away a staggering 12 times, misplacing passes both wide and through the middle and getting caught out positionally in key moments.

Where he does get some credit, however, was that he at least tried to be positive on the ball. The passes he misplaced were attempts to play through Southampton’s midfield, even if the risk has to end up with more reward.

As for Partey, he was better. Better being the apt way of saying he was nowhere near as dreadful as he was against Everton but still some way off where he is expected to be.

The killer aspect of him lacking confidence is where he stands on the pitch. He looked lost at times. In the opening stages he wasn’t showing for the ball as Arsenal tried to build, and his touch is less elegant than it needs to be if he’s playing that central role.

Odegaard dropping deep to provide and option to the centre-backs and facilitate play was indicative of this. At one stage Gabriel could be seen giving the Ghanaian a mouthful for not being where he needed to be in phase one of the play.

While Partey improved after the break, as did Xhaka, those two have to start gelling more as it’s clear that Arteta is going to persist with them as a partnership moving forward.

Continued on next page…

3. Arsenal Still Desperately Need to Sign a Striker

Lacazette took his goal well. It was a smart finish. It should also have been one of three he scored on the night. Sorry, not on the night, but in the first half.

Everything has to be perfect for him to score. Like a surfer eyeing an afternoon on the waves, the conditions have to be spot on for anything to work.

Generally speaking, he played well. There was less of this dropping into right-back nonsense that had been seen against Everton, with him acting more as the focal point in attack joining Gabriel Martinelli in trying to instigate the counter-press.

There was a lot on his shoulders after the Aubameyang debacle, so for that he does deserve some credit. However, put another striker in that team and Arsenal leave the Emirates with a hatful more goals to celebrate.

All of this was known beforehand: Arsenal need a new striker. But if they don’t dip into the January market then they’ll have to make do with what they have, which at the moment isn’t a great deal. Even Arteta’s favourite pupil, Eddie Nketiah, didn’t make it off the bench.

Arsenal need a new striker. Has that been said already?

Continued on next page…

4. Arsenal Have to Clean Up Their Finishing

Lacazette gets a bye on this purely because he didn’t shoot. As for some of the others, while Bukayo Saka and Martinelli’s efforts that struck the woodwork were well crafted efforts that they were unlucky to see not go in, the overall level of finishing at Arsenal is poor.

That falls on everyone’s shoulders. Xhaka and Partey weighed in with some ballooning efforts of their own.

In 16 matches this season Arsenal have struck the frame of the goal ten times, more than any other side in the division. The standout ones are Aubameyang and Nketiah’s outstanding misses from a collective distance of half a yard, but they point to a wider issue.

As atrocious as the Everton game was, the chances missed in that one could have seen Arsenal leave with far more than they deserved.

All of which makes it hugely positive to see goals coming from the likes of Odegaard and Smith Rowe. When you’ve got a strike force desperately low on confidence – and a fair bit of quality – you need to share the goals around.

There were 15 shots from Arsenal with five on target, but beyond the ones taken there are also the ones that weren’t taken (a la Lacazette). For all the work being done on playing out from the back, there has to be more of a clinical edge in the finishing.

Arsenal should have scored seven against Southampton.