Saints started 2013 on a positive note with perhaps their best performance of the season in a great draw with Arsenal.
Its fair to say that before the game there werent too many people predicting much for Saints, certainly after a decent set of results in our favour from most of our fellow relegation battlers we entered St Mary's with trepidation after seeing the way the Gunners had despatched Newcastle & Reading in recent games and with our leaky defence there was a good chance our goal difference would take a battering.
First good piece of news though was that Nigel Adkins had clearly been thinking about his line up and what was needed with several changes made, my worry though was that putting Jack Cork at right back was shuffling a bit too much and that Cork being in my opinion our most influential midfielder of late it would dilute the team, I neednt have worried though, not only did Cork put in another man of the match performance at right back, but Steve Davis replacing him in the middle put in a great display in his place in the centre.
Perhaps the biggest shock though was the return of Artur Boruc in goal, in truth he had a nightmare first ten minutes where he just could not seem to be able to get a grip on the ball, but despite the loud murmurs from the crowd and the ironic cheers when he stopped a back pass, he dug in didnt stop coming for the balls and didnt do much wrong in the other 80 minutes apart from the fact his kicking needs a bit of working on.
Overall though this was a great display from Saints who right from the off had the right attitude and were not overawed by their illustrious opponents, sometimes you can tell how Saints are going to perform early on, at the Emirates they looked scared before a ball was kicked, yesterday they had a confidence about them that they had a job to do and were good enough to do it, after surviving the initial goalkeeping scares they never looked back.
Saints goal owes a lot to Guly who despite the abuse he still continues to get put in another decent game, he battled to win the ball back in midfield and this lead to the goal, in this build up if it had been Guly who was too slwo and robbed of the ball as Lambert was, or if it had been guly who miskicked as Puncheon did there would have been hell to pay, luckily though Gaston Ramirez did not look a gift horse in the mouth when the ball dropped to him and crashed it home.
Unfortunately for Guly though luck isnt with him at the moment and he scored an own goal, to be blunt though he had to go for the ball and try and get something on it, if he hadnt blocked it, it was right in the mixer, but when your luck isnt in, as Guly's isnt at the moment, these things dont go your way.
In the second half Saints had complete controland Nigel Adkins made some good changes at the right times to ensure that as our legs tired Arsenal didnt get a foothold and get an undeserved winner.
Ramirez scored what looked like a winner half way through the second half but the goal was ruled out, many thought for offside, although that wasnt the case with Ramirez clearly being on although Lambert was off, but the real reason was for an alledged push on Koscielny, tv replays showed though that contact was minimal and the goal should really have been allowed.
But at the final whistle Saints fans were delighted with the point, not just because it lifted us above Wigan and out of the bottom three, but for the manner in which it was won, the worry as we went into Xmas was our inability to take points off sides in the top half of the table as well as away from home, after the draw at Stoke and this one against Arsenal aints took a big step in showing that they have the ability to do both in the New Year, there is still a long way to go in this battle but against the Gunners there seemed a new attitude and confidence about the team which if it continues bodes well or the rest of the season.