Arsene Wenger: 'It’s not enough, but considering the situation at half-time, we have to be content with it'

Published: 28 January, 2014
by RICHARD OSLEY

Premier League
SOUTHAMPTON 2, ARSENAL 2

THE good news for Arsenal fans: the Gunners are unlikely to play as badly as this all season. The bad news: the rollicking ride at the top of the Premier League looks to have finally been called in. 

After drawing 2-2 with Southampton, Arsenal must now watch Chelsea and Manchester City play on Wednesday night knowing both could – and it’s a very likely “could” – breeze past them and into the lead at the head of the table.

Consolation is only found in Arsenal’s ability to prise a fairly unmerited point away from St Mary’s, particularly after a first half in which Southampton controlled vast quantities of possession, created a farm full of chances and went in ahead through Jose Fonte’s 21st-minute header.

It was the least Saints deserved: their passing game only exposed the lethargy of Arsenal, who seemed to put the brakes on their own operation by installing Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini as a midfield pairing. The Gunners were missing something here, a link to the attack, the roles that Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey, both nursing injuries, the latter still up to six weeks away from a return, have previously played this season.

It will, however, be hard to listen to too many player interviews in which the Gunners who did make the team talk about giving their all and fighting to the finish. There was a mysterious lack of spirit. The second goal would have been Southampton’s had teenage forward Sam Gallagher not steered wide when found in front of the goal in the first half.

Arsenal did play well for 10 minutes just after the interval. Olivier Giroud, an enigma really, sometimes ordinary, and sometimes, as in this moment, a star, flicked his heel to divert the ball beyond Saints keeper Artur Boruc. That undeserved equaliser was followed up minutes later when Santi Cazorla thrashed home a shot for his third in four games. 

Ahead, somehow, it was time for calmness and to steady the ship. But while the Gunners were working out how this should be done, the odd sequence of three goals in six minutes climaxed with a Southampton leveller. Adam Lallana, a player with so much ahead of him, buried the even more promising Luke Shaw’s centre. 

The chatty comparisons sometimes made between Shaw and his club’s former full-back Gareth Bale are not wholly unwise. Arsenal hardly threatened after the setback of Southampton’s speedy reply, although Mesut Ozil, whose star billing is ever so slightly beginning to fade as the weeks go by, almost scored a goal of the season contender when he raced alone from his own half to the penalty area before his deflected shot looped onto the crossbar. 

Southampton, however, looked more likely. At one point they put together more than 30 passes without an Arsenal touch. Shaw might have been the hero had his speeding long-range shot not been tipped over. 

Any hopes that the Gunners might rise again from their slumber – and remember that for the first time in a while, they have at least a role in the title chase and that requires mighty focus every match – were dashed by Flamini’s stupidity. A two-footed tackle during an innocuous passage of play had the inevitable consequence of a red card and a three-match suspension. He has been lauded for the way he has brought more bite to Arsenal’s midfield, but this was a really silly red-mist moment, even if Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said afterwards he felt it was a “harsh” sending off. 

Battered and bruised, Arsenal sought the final whistle like a boxer hopes for the end of the round 12 bell. No knockout blows sustained, but they will need patching up before they go again.

Wenger was, nevertheless, as philosophical as the evening allowed, explaining afterwards: “It’s not enough, but considering the situation at half-time, we have to be content with it.”

ARSENAL: Szcesny, Sagna, Monreal, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Arteta, Flamini, Gnabry (Oxlade-Chamberlain 70), Cazorla (Gibbs 86), Ozil, Giroud (Podolski 90).
Subs not used: Fabianski, Bendtner, Jenkinson, Vermaelen
Attendance: 31,284