Premier League Match 20 - Southampton 1 Arsenal 1

Gaston Scores then Guly pulls it back !

Arsenal at home on New Years Day and what do we have, oh yes, a stupid Sky O’Clock kick off time.  Playing at 5.30 means that you know all the other scores before you kick off but forget the Premier League for a minute, the one I liked was Swindon 5 Portsmouth 0 – Happy New Year!!!

I guess this match was selected for Sky viewing so Arsenal fans can check out all the players that their club has been linked with through the media, in the ever building frenzy as we approach the transfer window... which of course is now officially open.  It’s difficult not to get annoyed when you read stuff like “part of Wenger’s business today will be to negotiate the purchase of Luke Shaw” as if it’s a fact and as if that turning up and getting three points is a given so Wenger can concentrate on transfers.  However, the truth will be nothing like that and as Nigel Adkins said – you have to negotiate with the Chairman and good luck with that!

The Chairman of course is The Don and it’s well known (allegedly) amongst the cynical that he has no interest in the pre-Liebherr Saints which makes it slightly odd that Terry Paine is here today to be officially unveiled as the new Honorary Club President.   I started watching Saints in 1975 so I only saw Terry play once at The Dell and that was against us for Hereford United where he went at the end of his 815 games, and 18 years as a Saint.  Terry was presented with an award on the pitch and conducted an interview with the irritating Bald Guy which I couldn’t hear a word of due to the shocking PA system.

Back to today and the the line-ups are announced and the random player chosen to be out of position today is Jack Cork who has been slotted into right back with Steven Davis coming into midfield.  Gaston has been recalled instead of J-Rod and Guly has deservedly kept his place on the wing after his good performance at Stoke.  There is also the welcome (in my eyes) choice of Artur Boruc in goal as Kelvin paid the price for one too many flapping expeditions and questionable goals conceded.  Arsenal have named the same side as last week which is understandable given that not too many changes are usually necessary after you’ve won your last game 7-3.  This meant an SMS return for both Theo Walcott and Alex Chamberlain who were on the middle and the right of Arsenal’s front 3.  With the other 4 of the front 6 being Podolski, Arteta, Wilshere and Cazorla... it was all a bit scary looking.

Arsenal made a decent start as expected and the first cross into our box was comfortable enough and heading straight to Boruc until it turned into a bar of soap mid-flight and pinged off his fingers and was hacked clear.  Five minutes later and another cross went straight to him and once more, the ball squirmed out and an alert Yoshida hacked it clear.  The battle down out left was Shaw versus Chamberlain and our boy was winning comfortably.  Chambo couldn’t do him for pace or strength which was good to see.

Saints gets their first real spell of possession as Morgan gets stuck in to dispossess Wilshere who lies on the ground to try and get a free kick to cover up for the fact that he lost it.  It’s all a bit scrappy for the next twenty minutes or so but it’s absorbing stuff and the time flies by.  Gaston bursts into the Arsenal box and goes down and half heartedly appeals but it’s nothing that’s ever going to get given.  It is enough though for the Arsenal fans to start chanting ‘Bale, Bale, Bale’ at him which is quite amusing.  Arsene Wenger is up in the technical area which brings a retaliatory “You’re just a French Jimmy Savile” from the Northam End which is slightly less amusing with an element of cringe thrown in.  From his next run at the box, Gaston is clipped by Koscielny who is trying to pull out of the tackle and though he stumbles, he keeps going and loses the ball which brings another round of ‘Bale, Bale, Bale’.  I think it was outside the box anyway but it’s another case of the choice you have as a player between going down and risking a booking or staying up and knowing you won’t get a free kick cos the ref won’t give it unless you go down.  You can see why so many players choose the Bale option.

On 35 minutes, Podolski, who should feel right at home being Polish in Southampton, loses the ball to Morgan who tries to feed Sir Rickie who is on his heels so Sagna nips in and clears it badly across the box straight to Punch who somehow squirts it back to Gaston who smashes it into the net past Szczesny (which on a triple word score gets 93) and SMS goes nuts and I manage to cut my shin on the seat in front of me.. safe standing... bring it back!!!

I’m immediately looking at my watch to see how long there is to go until half time and there is 8 minutes to the break as Arsenal get a free kick on the left as Punch needlessly brings down Arteta.  Walcott goes over to take it and swings it into an area which doesn’t contain any Arsenal players but it does contain Guly who tries to clear it and can only divert it straight past Boruc to make it 1-1.  Mr Scapegoat who sits behind my Dad is in apoplexy but he’s such a moron that he doesn’t know who to blame as you couldn’t see Guly get the touch from where we are in the Kingsland but the rest of us knew that it wasn’t “DAAAAAAAAAAAAVIS” who was to blame.  Eyes turned to the big screen to see what had happened but all we get is Walcott strike the free kick and then a ‘Shoulder to Shoulder, We are the Saints’ logo slogan bollocks. What’s the point of starting to show an uncontroversial incident and then cutting it?  Having seen the replay now, it cracks me up that some fans can blame the keeper for it – the only way it can even be partly Boruc’s fault is if he didn’t call and who knows if he did or not?

The remaining action of the first half sees Wilshere down again before miraculously recovering and Walcott having the ball in the net when the offside flag had already been up for a few seconds.  Half time arrived and 1-1 and a decent enough first half performance which was appreciated by the SMS faithful and off to the bar behind Mr Scapegoat who is probably going to yell at Kelvin Davis in the toilet.

The first ten minutes of the second half were pretty nondescript in terms of chances but I felt that we were the better side and Arsenal were really struggling up front with Cazorla and the three forwards producing very little.  For the neutrals watching on Sky, it must have been very annoying.  Guly was on a one man mission to make up for his own goal and picked up a half clearance on the left, turned away from Sagna who was having a shithouse of a game, before spinning and hitting a shot from 25 yards at the near post, forcing Szscesny to tip wide.   Guly’s resulting corner was a brilliant delivery which hit Sagna in front of his own goal and unluckily for us, couldn;t compouns his shite performance with an own goal and it span straight to the keeper.

Mr Wenger decided that all was not well and removed one of their big hitters with Podolski being replaced with Giroud with Chambo going left and Theo right which would present our whole defence with a new problem to deal with.  Morgan celebrated the yellow card amnesty which kicked in a few hours ago by trashing Cazorla and picking up a yellow card before we had a couple of half chances with Punch hitting the side netting on the stretch and Gaston blazing well over the bar from the edge of the box.  Saints won a free kick which was closer to Central Station that then Arsenal goal but The Great Gaston tried a shot regardless which bounced in front of Szczesny as the players piled in but sadly, Arsenal had no one of Guly’s attacking instinct to stick it in the net for us.

Artur was called into action a couple of times in quick succession and looked more confident as first he cleanly took a Sagna cross in a group of players and then comfortably saved an angled shot from Walcott before the major controversy of the game as following a decent passing move, Steven Davis chipped over Koscielny onto Gaston’s chest who turned and in one movement, buried it but the flag was up.  To get space, Gaston had given Koscielny the tiniest little nudge and the big strapping centre half had thrown himself forward like Bale, Bale Bale and made a massive meal of it which got him the free kick and the goal chalked off.  It’s soft as you like but the flag was up very early which doesn’t make it right but it at least makes it an honest decision.

Wilshere, who was easily the best Arsenal player on view, went down and stayed down again following another challenge by our team hard man, Gaston.  Later replay showed that he did in fact accidentally kick him in the head so I’ll let him have that one and it was now sub time with both managers going for the bench.  Nigel removed the clearly knackered Sir Rickie and replaced him with J-Rod and Wenger decided to play for a draw by removing Chambo and Cazorla and bringing on Ramsey and Gervinho and his Forehead.  Joking aside – as an opposition fan, I was absolutely delighted with Wenger’s choice of subs... how is that making their team more likely to score?  Ramsey has totally lost his way and Gervinho is just a big fucking head.  My substitution related mood took a turn for the worse as Nigel removed another large chunk of our goal threat with Gaston making way for James Ward-Prowse which basically said “Look Arsene, we have another youngster”.

The substitutions predictably did nothing for Arsenal but they did have one chance which Arteta slammed well wide from 25 yards.  Steeeeeve came on for Guly and his one positive contribution as time ran out was to start a move by beating a couple of players, which ended with JWP feeding Punch who cut past Gibbs before firing straight at Szczesny from close range which he kept out comfortably.  Two feet either side and who knows but trying to drill a hole through him had little chance of success.

The full time whistle blows and the cheer that goes up is the kind that’s usually reserved for a victory which this of course, is not.  It is however, a moral victory in that we played very well and totally deserved a point against a team that dicked us 6-1 earlier on in the season.  As the players take the applause of the crowd, Walcott and Chamberlain show their appreciation to all 4 sides of the ground which is a nice touch.  I don’t doubt that both players are grateful for the start they were given by us but I find myself with differing views on them.  To my mind, Theo left in a better way in that he hadn’t signed a professional contract with us and we basically, had no choice having just been relegated to the Championship.  Alex on the other hand couldn’t wait to get away.  It’s ironic that Theo is coming to the end of his contract so he’ll probably be moving somewhere and if for nothing other than payback for Arsene Wenger, I hope he leaves.   If Luke Shaw had clapped the Arsenal fans then you know that the media will have been all over it and the wrist-slashers in our own support would have been out in force.  So, it should be obvious to everyone that Theo is coming back to Saints..... well, I can dream.

If you look around our starting XI then it’s full of players who had very good games.  Artur improved as the game went on after the nervous start which I put down to solely, not having played at all for 4 months.  There’s something a bit amiss if there is a goalkeeper who is likely to be thrust into action in the First team hasn’t even had a warm up game for the Under 21s.  Corky at right back was a worry for me as he was pretty poor whenever he ended up there last year but today he didn’t give Podolski a sniff who was substituted, then he didn’t give Chambo a look in and he was subbed as well and replace with The Forehead who may as well have not bothered, seeing how little he did.  My worry was that moving Corky out of midfield would weaken that area but Steven Davis came in and had his best game for us, always being available and curbing his natural instinct to attack more and digging in strongly.    Going back to players not getting a sniff – Walcott and then Giroud did nothing in the face of Fonte and Yoshida who are now looking like an excellent partnership at the back.  As for Luke Shaw, well he was superb as usual, a fact that won’t have been missed by anyone.  Hands off Mr Wenger.

Nigel was full of beans in his interview, lauding the effort against a team who had been stuffing everyone out of sight.  He’s right of course though over the next few days we will be bombarded with reports of how bad Arsenal were and our performance will be reduced to a ‘Not wishing to take anything away from Southampton but....’  Some things never change but it’s nice to get any sort of positive result against one of the big boys.  I'd rather get a result and take all the condescending shit in the media than get beat.

A quick turnaround once again as it’s FA Cup time on Saturday and we have Chelsea who will be desperate to do well in this competition and Rafa Benitez will want to justify his presence as Chelsea Manager.   No matter what noises come out of SFC in the next few days – we won’t be desperate to win this and expect to see some serious squad rotation and players like Frazer, Foxy, James Ward-Prowse and even Tadanari Lee getting a run out.   We’re even rotating the kit as the red one will be needed for the more important League games and we’re playing in that abomination of a white kit.  Reagrdless of kit and personnel, let’s hope we chalk another trophy off the Rafa wish list.