Southampton 4-0 Arsenal
That was, even with the benefit of a good night’s sleep to mull it over followed by a cup of tea that contained the ideal mixture of heat, strength and milk, a wretched performance.
It’s made me gloomier than I thought it would – than I have been for a while about Arsenal, certainly – because it arrived unheralded, and just at the time when I had allowed myself to be swept along – if only in my head – by ‘the hope’.
Ah, ‘the hope’. Damn it all with bells on.
But first, credit where it is due to Saints, who were precisely the opposite of Arsenal. Confident, energetic, lethal and full of goals, just at a time when you expected it least (my Saints-supporting friend from work, who has followed their strange season home and away, thought Arsenal might score three of four).
Arsenal, when presented with the opportunity to go top, slipped and fell. You can just about get away with one player underperforming, but what happened to our team yesterday? There were six or seven shockers from players who have otherwise been as reliable as clockwork. We were anonymous up front, a creaking mess at the back and never bossed it in midfield. It’s baffling, and yet not so baffling, because we can switch off. And yesterday we had no answer in the face of concerted pressure.
A few Twitter souls dragged me off the gloom precipice last night, reminding it me that it’s been a strange season all round (it has), that being tonked for four is bad but needs context (it does). Nevertheless, there are no positives to take from it, only gentle reminders that there’s a lot of work to do in order to keep our league position up and that Arsenal still – albeit less frequently – contain a self-destructive gene.
If you’re looking for answers, perhaps the fact we are relying on the same XI would be a place to start. They looked tired, even though they’ve had five days off, and they’ve got to do it all again tomorrow. There’s not much light at the end of the tunnel there though, apart perhaps in defence – we’re scraping the barrel and our one main attacking alternative, the Ox, is a strange husk of himself at the moment. We have some very damaging injuries, as we all know.
Wenger had a poke at the ref, but let’s not pretend we were robbed by the ref. That’s just disingenuous. As soon as the first Southampton goal went in, Arsenal crumbled and disappeared. We could have lost by more than four.
It was a Boxing Day massacre. We can’t afford too many more days at the office like that.
