Southampton 1 – 1 Arsenal (Ramirez 35, Do Prado (og) 41)
Match Report | Highlights | Arsene’s reaction
I’ll remember this match for the 74th minute. With Arsenal searching for someone to make the difference and allow them to nick a single goal, and with it two further points, Arsene Wenger unveiled his back-up plan. From the substitutes bench came the men tasked with rescuing the victory for Arsenal: Aaron Ramsey and Gervinho.
I don’t want to dissect the individual contribution of those two players. I accept they’re both flawed in different ways. I also accept that they seem like decent pros who give their all. I’m not, despite the obvious temptation, setting out to slate two guys whose limitations are not their own fault. However, the inference is clear: Arsenal do not have enough quality in the squad.
We can’t complain of injuries. The only major absentee is Abou Diaby, and that is something of a given. Bar the knack-prone Frenchman, this is an Arsenal squad at full strength. And when it came to the crunch, once Olivier Giroud had been thrown on to add much needed shape to the forward line, we didn’t have a decent card left to play. In replacing Chamberlain and Cazorla with the aforementioned pair of Ramsey and Gervinho, we were actually weakening our team.
It’s a problem that’s existed at Arsenal for a few seasons now: we have a strong first XI, but the players in reserve fail to match up. The disparity between first-team and back-up increases over time: Arsene is reluctance to use his squad members, overplaying the likes of Arteta and Cazorla, whilst the men who come up short fall out of the reckoning entirely. Their confidence drops, and so does their sharpness. When they are later called upon, usually out of necessity, the gap between them and the required level seems all the greater. Hence the abominable displays of Marouane Chamakh, the disppearance of Chu-Young Park etc.
Arsene doesn’t help himself. When asked recently about reported interest in Demba Ba, he stated:
“He is a similar type to Giroud and you will see Giroud develop into that kind of player.”
That may be. But that doesn’t preclude Arsenal from buying Ba too. There is room in the squad for more than one powerful centre-forward. That way if one is injured, out of form, or just a bit tired you have the option of changing him. Come the end of the season, you’ve got two players who are motivated by true competition and fresher due to being afforded rest.
By way of comparison with Arsenal, Manchester United can pick a front four of Shinji Kagawa, Wayne Rooney, Antonio Valencia and one Robin van Persie and still have Ashley Young, Danny Welbeck, Javier Hernandez, and Nani in reserve. They can mix and match and still have enough quality to beat all but the sternest opponents. I don’t expect Arsenal to be able to put together a stable of forwards of that quality anytime soon, but now that the transfer window is open there is no excuse for not going after some top drawer reinforcements.
The fact that we have Arteta shouldn’t prevent us chasing a defensive midfielder. The fact that we have Cazorla shouldn’t rule out the pursuit of a schemer. And the fact that Theo Walcott has had a handful of decent games through the middle certainly shouldn’t prohibit the signing of a striker. Quality and competition provides flexibility. This was an inflexible Arsenal performance. Signings are the antidote.
Pleasingly, Arsene’s post-match comments suggest he is preparing to enter the market. I’m also somewhat reassured by the news that Thierry Henry won’t be returning on loan: it means the manager can’t take the easy option of pouncing for a player he knows well for next to no money. The short term sticking plaster is no longer an option.
Throwing money at a problem doesn’t always work. In football, however, it rarely hurts.
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SKREAMER COMP
Congratulations to @AdamBooth87, whose name came out of the hat and wins himself a pair of Skreamer boots. I’ll be in touch soon to sort out your prize.
ps. Happy New Year, you lot.
Is it pleasing if this manager enters the market, given his recent track record? He doesn’t learn, so he’ll continue to make the same mistakes, because he thinks he never makes mistakes – it’s all external forces in his mind, creating barriers to his perfect ‘vision’. We must also bear in mind that he has a deliberately shallow squad – much easier to manage, and Wenger’s first priority is his own comfort, his own interests. So he’ll never assemble a strong enough squad to actually challenge. Personally I’d rather he signed no one, left in the summer and the next manager spent whatever cash there is.
Sir Arsene performs another miracle. One nil down away from home and we still manage to get a draw. Most other teams would not have the mentool stwength or spiwit to fight back. Even the £millions of Southampton could not prevent Sir Arsene.
Maybe you all expect Sir Arsene to go spend like City, Chelsea, Bradford, Southampton and then make us bankrupt.
I am so looking forward to a cracking 2013 with Sir Arsene – the man’s a genius.
I haven’t seen the match yet (in Australia), but I’m not sure you can say Gervinho at least is second-team material, as for many matches his performances were keeping Ox out of the team. I may be biased (as a S’ton fan) but I’ve always thought Ox was an overall better player… but Gervinho still isn’t 2nd class.
I thought we would have been slaughtered by Arsenal actually, so I’m happy it was only 1 goal and we got a point.
btw there are a lot of S’ton fans who have Arsenal as their 2nd team… maybe because you have the S’ton player connection.
Firstly I would like to say that I do not think that Wenger has a Plan B, I think he just replaces players for anyone with fresh legs who is available. Secondly why bring on Ramsey who is clearly out of form instead of Rosicky, who is much more creative. Thirdly why are we not using players like Arshavin and Maroune. I think these players have something to offer the team (creativity and arial threat), in my opinion Maroune and Arshavin are much better than Ramsey and maybe Gervinho. This will give the first team players a much needed rest. On the other hand I do not think Wenger can turn to these players e.g. Arshavin because he has stripped them mentally of any confidence they might have left and has quite frankly pissed these players off (Arshavin is the captain of Russia and he is behind Ramsey who got stripped of his captaincy of Wales). Finally if Wenger is not going to play the likes of Arshavin, Maroune, Santos etc. (In Wengers opinion deadwood) then sell them and bring in replacements that will actually play and not just keep the bench warm, adding much needed depth to the squad. If Wenger is so tight he cannot buy a striker in January why not bring back our striker who is on loan at Juventus not playing, he must be a better option than some of the players we have now.
Yes, and you know better than Sir Arsene?
You should write a personal message to him offering him your opinion
Come I myself thinks that Wenger is the best manager in the world and has achieved the most in terms of youth development but some of his decisions drive me crazy. There is a lot of truth in what I said.
I can not be more agree with you. For years i thought about it why every player we buy they play good in their former club but as soon they play fot us their start is good but after some games they go out of shape player like Arshavin gervinho ever Chamak we destroy them then we can not even sale them for reasonable price we have Rosicky but we play useless Ramzy who is not good enough for first team i have nothing against him but the boy need play in reseve team until he find his form and i can not understand Wenger is making the same mistake about Oliver he is a much better than Theo strong in air perfect killer for game like this but Wenger kill the game to convince theo to stay!!!! I like Theo but honesty we loosed our best player like Robin and Nasri etc why we should pay high price for a player that is not even good enough ok some times he can do something but he is far from good and believe me or not any of top 4 clubs will let him play as first striker. Another thing is we are not a physically strong and always need a week rest it is because there is no back up player we use the same player over and over even a hours will get tired!!
In the mean time why don’t we play Rosický, as much as I like Cazorla ,rosicky is a better fit at the head of the midfield. using cazorla outwide means we have two creative players in the side.
our current midfield is great on paper and would be greater on the field if we were capable of keeping possession.
we should look to get in someone who can break up play as playing on the counter would suit us.
by adding this midfield option we would have quality in the midfield to rival that of man utds attacking unit. in terms of quality.
and a striker is a most.
the only consolation is that the other sides battling of the top four have similar squad limitations.
I agree with you about playing Rosicky, why sign a player to a two year contract if you are not going to use him. Still feel strongly about the other points I made.
GS, how dare you question Sir Arsene?
Just because you play a lot of Football Manager on xbox – does not give you the right to question this Arsenal hero.
You should blame the players that are on huge money and don’t perform.
Sir Arsene says that this is the best squad of players he has ever worked with – who are you to argue with him.
Sir Arsene brings a little bit of French class to your little island and you want to judge him?
Sir Arsene is bigger than Arsenal Football Club – HE IS ARSENAL FOOTBALL CLUB!
My prediction for the remainder of the season. Theo WILL sign a new contract. That will be deemed by Wenger a new signing and we won’t get anyone else in. We’ll finish trophy-less yet again, but more poignantly, outside a champions league qualification spot.
This will cause seismic waves amongst the already volcanic support and ‘sir’ Wenger will fall on his sword. His legacy will survive but people will say that it could’ve been avoided if he kept counsel, took advice and listened to others.
I will return at the end of the season.
Oh and one last thing. Selling RVP to your biggest rival is unforgivable. Man Utd won’t even give us a sniff of Nani, not that I’d want him anyway. But the point is, you don’t sell your best player to your nearest rival. Take less money and sell him abroad. Unforgivable.
Yes and look where that got Tottenham….they ended up selling Modric to RM for £7m less than they would have got from Chelsea.
You silly Englanders really should stop playing Football Manager.
We make more money by selling to United and make the shareholders happy
Are you living in the past? Do you really see Utd as Arsenal’s biggest rival?
Yep agreed bob,that sale tells you all you need to know about the current manager and board, no ambition and with that sale they have given the title to manu and sum’s up the current team …no ambition no real drive to win as they are comfortable with what they achieve as they can’t possibly compete with the other cash rich clubs and it is that attitude that is instilled by the manager that runs through a club that is effectivly asleep and in a comfort zone where the fourth place trophy is now somehow there sole purpose for competeing .no risk taking no speculating , actually nothing and I am afriad this arsenal team is more boring than the old arsenal team who were labled boring any way I am sure drunken cunt will share his wisdom here and advise us all as he or she is incredibly knowledgeable for a ten year old
It time Arsene do something good for the fans and for the sake of the team,the arsenal team is detoriating day by day the players are not living upto expectations.I think sometimes they should watch the video clips of the invincible to know what wearing aresnal shirt is all about,they lack fight,focus,determination,hunger,zeal and strenght.Now that january is here we have to make the signings that matters the one that will make impact in the team.Come today’s game I don’t know why Wenger always prefer Ramssey to Rosicky,we can’t continue being like this(INCONSISTENCY)it is bad and too much this season..
Where were all you negative peasants when we thrashed Newcastle?
Go and support Spurs, they need your “support” more than we do.
BoB: re the RvP to united/ abroad thing. While agree that it’s quite rediculous that we strengthened a rival, I’m not sure you can forcefully sell a player to a team without him agreeing to terms etc…so did van Persie actually fancy going abroad? Maybe/ maybe not..So could we have made him see out his contract? Perhaps, but the “update for the fans” basically negated that option too..
So what option(s) was left? Cash in etc etc or let him see out his time in the reserves [as many suggested] & let him go on a Bosman anyway. Obviously the only ideal situation would have been him extending his stay and racking up those [16?]league goals for us rather than *them*. Also, who’s to say he wouldn’t have suffered another spell on the injury table shortly after signing a new deal with us? Granted, he doesn’t look like getting injured at the moment but our “luck” generally stinks in that regard. Would it have been any better had he signed for City instead? One thing is for certain though, the entire situation is/ was far from ideal to put it mildly..
Firstly what a shit performance and it s not just today, its happening every few games. A team in the bottom 3 should be fodder for AFC but not under this regime. We were lucky to get a point, there was only 1 team gonna win and it sure wasn’t us.
Secondly, we haven’t had a good squad for years, and GS only just brings it up WTF? We got a good 11 but thats it, Ramsey and Gervinho coming on to try and win the game, come off it, we are better when Gervinho is at ACN duty and Ramsey gets a Shawcross leg breaker, sorry but its true, he’s shit and we’re better without him. Dont make subs for the sake of it.
Arshavin must be off as he’s better than anyone on the bench today yet still didn’t make it, again WTF? Atleast he’s creative.
Why not give youngsters like Eisfeld a chance, atleast they will benefit and improve intime, Ramsey, Rosicky, and the rest wont.
Signings are needed badly and this result might not be a bad thing in the long run, if we’d won easily again Wenger would be saying we dont need anyone but this way he’ll be worried about top 4 pulling away from us and so will the board and last time that happened in jan we broke our transfer record to get Arshavin for £15m.
Plenty of reports saying we’ve put in a £10m bid for Adrian Lopez of Atletico Madrid? Looked okay when i’ve seen him but doesn’t score many for a striker, think i’d rather have Ba but he may turn out good, played for Spain twice this year and can play central, wide and support striker so would be typical Wenger signing. Also plenty of reports of Luke Shaw, the left back at who played today and looked good although didn’t have to do much against Ox and Theo who were both poor but he’s got plenty of rave reviews and we do need someone to push Gibbs and cover his injuries although i like the look of Meade. Would like Nani but ManU wont sell to us so Zaha more likely bit thats another project thats all about potential in the next few years. Just have to do the usual and wait and then if we do buy players with potential then we’ll have to wait again even longer for the project to come to fruition proving we dont sell beforehand.
Also, Sagna has been so shit this year, Podolski needs a rocket up his ass and putting on the bench, Arteta need resting more with M’Vila bringing in.
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Strength of subs: how in a game like this, when needing a trigger or something to open up the opposition, does Ramsey and Gerbinho get picked ahead of Rosicky and Arshavin??
It’s not just about the players, it’s the manager’s lack of ability to rotate; select and optimumly mangege to the best effect what he’s already got. Wenger has made loads of buys over the last two seasons and a number have been found wanting. Whether it be how they’re nurtured, or the fact that they were certainly players that showed ability beforehand, it now has to lay at the front of the manager’s door
When you have a player with the quality of RVP, you work week in, week out. He is top scorer in the league for you and your captain. You know the damage he can do and you sell him to ‘improve’ your opponents? It’s like emptying your gun and handing the bullets over to your enemy. It makes no sense.
Are you telling me that we could not have sold him abroad? Wenger should have said to him ‘fine you don’t want to stay? We’ll let you go but not to Manchester or Chelsea. Were we that desperate for the money. It was just another bad call amongst a growing list of bad calls by the very long in the tooth AW.
It’s been that long I think that he has almost forgotten how to win a trophy!
clearly we lacked creativity and penetration,but all wenger did was bringing in ramsey instead of Rossicky! just beyond me!
We keep saying the same thing over and over for the past 8 years. Personally, I am tired of talking. It is time for action. Everyone seem to know what the problem is, what are we doing about it? It seems Wenger is too stubborn to change or he is plain stupid. Whichever, it is better he steps up or steps OUT
“Arsenal do not have enough quality in the squad.”
I think Rosicky could have made an impact.
Completely agree with you on remembering the match on that double substitution. I almost walked out at that point.
I think we still have better replacements that Gervinho and Ramsey despite our lack of strength in depth. Arsharvin has proven very positive on several occasions this season coming on as a sub. Much better replacement for Carzola’s position. As for Gervinho, well it seems anyone else will do at the moment.
Great point on that Arsene really brought this onto himself, or us. His squad rotation is horrible. Sure, we don’t have the same amount of quality players from the Manchester teams but surely he should put his money where his mouth is and play those players he trusted enough to buy or groom.
I personally don’t think we need another striker. I think we have enough to rotate Podolski, Walcott and Giroud. We need more vision and creativity down the flanks and in Carzola’s replacement.
The Ox is still raw and Podolski really doesn’t impress in that position. We need some footballing brains on the pitch. And maybe some off it.
Make it a good 2013 you Reds!
“Throwing money at a problem doesn’t always work. In football, however, it rarely hurts.”
I get your point and agree Arsene should spend, but ask Pompey fans if they feel that way now…
But we are not Pompey, we are one of the biggest clubs in Europe, one of the best run clubs in Europe. We are always making a profit in the transfer windows its time to reinvest the money we get from letting all of our best players go. Also the board and Wenger say there is no money but our ticket prices are the highest. Where is this money going!!!
Is there a way we can make money on this? I would like to ‘short’ some of the players that Wenger buy this summer. I’m certain I’ll be handsomely paid on the average by the number of good players that he turns to shite.
Don’t be mistaken, he does have an eye of the odd crazy talent but his average is really poor.
Rosicky coming on lifts the heart. arshavin coming on used to have the same effect till he was mismanaged into oblivion by wenger. ramsey is an amiable Jonah. bad luck when he starts and lacking when he comes off the bench. So who does wenger bring on when he needs to input drive and creativity into the team? useless rambo of course.
Wengers been making perverse decisions for years. He ain’t going to stop anytime soon.
So AB and GB say we need players and LG say we need a new manager. I say we need a new manager who can be trusted to buy new players, and then motivate said players.
People laughed when spuds signed avb. I don’t think anyone will be laughing at the close of the season. Spuds have slowly but surely taken our place. In fact we have consciously given it to them through a combination of foolish investment, a failed socialist wage model And just general complacency. Time for a change.