Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
Saints At Arsenal ! Dan's Review
Monday, 12th Sep 2016 09:30

Hearts were broken in the away stand at the Emirates as Southampton lost their game against Arsenal in the 94th minute to a Santi Cazorla penalty.

Saints started the match very positively as Nathan Redmond won a free-kick for the away side on the edge of the box after beating Nacho Monreal and causing the Spaniard to go into Bobby Madley’s book.

As Van Dijk and Tadic stood over the ball, expectations weren’t too high but a great effort from Tadic and a little bit of luck saw the ball come off of the cross bar, onto Petr Cech and gave Southampton the lead in a game for the first time this season.

Southampton continued to create good play but Arsenal started knocking on the door a little bit as Van Dijk had to make a close range clearance after a Mesut Ozil pass. Eventually, Arsenal knocked the door down as Laurent Koscienly scored, in my opinion, a dangerous goal from an overhead kick following an Arsenal corner. If you look at the highlights on Match of the Day, he clips Clasie who stayed on his feet but if he’d fell in pain the goal would’ve been disallowed.

The visitors started the second half well as substitute Shane Long made a fantastic effort to get into a one-on-one position with Petr Cech but put the ball past his near post, that wasn’t his only chance.

Both sides had good chances to take the lead, Arsenal also coming close through a substitute, this time, Alexis Sanchez who curled the ball over Fraser Forster’s goal.

However, there was a winning goal and it wasn’t in favour of the home team who’d worked so hard for the point and even could’ve left with all three. Jose Fonte took down Olivier Giroud in the box in injury time and the hosts were given a penalty. Again a very poor decision from the referee. Hearts sunk as Forster dived when the ball from Cazorla went straight down the middle.

My man of the match was Oriol Romeu. He made lots of key interceptions and had some good passes too. Tadic could’ve taken the honours but Romeu played his role as a defensive midfielder very well.

We need to put this game behind us, yes it’s upsetting losing in the final minute but it happened last season against Chelsea at a more crucial part of the season and look where we finished. This week is a golden opportunity to get our season back on track with two home games. A win in the Europa League against Prague will be exactly what we need for Swansea at home next Sunday. Two wins would surely be what we need to kick off.

Photo: Action Images



Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.



SanMarco added 12:19 - Sep 12
I see that the Chelsea equaliser yesterday involved similar dangerous play. One of these days a 'spectacular' overhead kick will score a goal and in the same match a player will be sent off for dangerous play for doing the exact same thing on a different part of the pitch.

What gets me about the penalty is that any referee would surely have to be 100% sure to give one that late in the game - and even those being charitable would say it was 50-50 at best. The final word goes to Wenger who admitted that Arsenal were a bit 'lucky' - says it all coming from him.
3

bstokesaint added 13:00 - Sep 12
I'm hoping that the Europa will start with a with a win for us and be a catalyst for the domestic season. I'm still really annoyed that we never purchased another centre back and a quality striker in the window, but we've got to move on from that. Talk of us having a relegation fight too is ridiculous. That's just extreme. Admittedly it's not been a great start, but we need to give the new manager time to impress his tactics and formation on the team. It's depressing not winning games, but after a half decent show against Arsenal it does feel like the tables may be about to turn. Maybe we just need a little luck and a little faith and to hope the narrow defeat away to last year's runners-up galvanizes the team and gets the bus back on the road!
0

SonicBoom added 23:38 - Sep 12
I'm wondering if the person who wrote this is actually English?
0


You need to login in order to post your comments

Blogs 31 bloggers

Knees-up Mother Brown #22 by wessex_exile

Southampton Polls

About Us Contact Us Terms & Conditions Privacy Cookies Advertising
© FansNetwork 2024