Kevin Whitcher's Arsenal Blog

Arsenal 3 Southampton 3     Premier League    Friday 21st April 2023 8pm Taking a cold hard look at Arsenal recently, this is not a team displaying title form. They have conceded seven goals in three matches – five of them against relegation contenders. Three points from nine matches is the equivalent points-wise of losing two of them.    The late Gunners’ equaliser provided cause for celebration at the end of normal time, but more because it provided hope of a chance of another late, late winner. That didn’t come, with Thomas Partey firing over the bar in an attempt to score an injury time Hollywood goal when he had Odegaard in space to his right for a simple pass was a moment that summed up the lack of cool-headed thinking required to negotiate pressure games.   And that is it in a nutshell – these players have sadly made too many poor decisions under pressure. Football is a results game and they were dominating the first two of these three draws, bu...

Southampton 1 Arsenal 1   Premier League   Sunday 23rd October 2022 2pm     The trip to Southampton is one that has presented enough problems over the years for this fixture not to have been taken for granted, irrespective of the Saints’ relatively poor season so far. When they beat Arsenal back in April, it was a rare win for them in a poor run during 2022 up to that point. There have been plenty of draws and defeats for the Gunners at St Mary’s down the years. And it proved another banana skin yesterday, as the winning run since the defeat at Old Trafford (eight wins in all competitions) came to and end. What might be worth noting though is that since beating Liverpool, in four games Arsenal have scored once per match. The defence has done an excellent job, but it came unstuck at Southampton and two points were dropped. Although Manchester City haven’t overtaken Mikel Arteta’s side yet, it does feel like a matter of time, and on that score, it is the results of the...

Southampton 1 Arsenal 0   Premier League   Saturday 16th April 2022 3pm     A second Saturday 3pm kick off in a row feels like a bit of a rarity, but it’s also an indication that Arsenal matches don’t really matter so much these days, at least in terms of a wider TV audience. A third defeat in a row, and a fourth in the last five matches, points to the wheels coming off at the business end of the season, which is something we’ve seen a little too often since the club upped sticks in 2006 and moved to the Emirates. Rather astonishingly, Arsenal’s chances of making fourth place are still very much in their own hands – given they still have to play all of the other four teams credibly vying for third and fourth place in their remaining seven matches. However, the Gunners can’t buy a goal these days – netting once in total against the combined might of Palace, Brighton and Southampton. Last weekend, Chelsea played at St Mary’s and walloped their hosts 6-0. You could argu...

Arsenal 3 Southampton 0   Premier League   Saturday 11th December 2021   3pm     After the calamities against Manchester United and Everton, the one thing the fixture list has provided for Mikel Arteta to try and rebuild faith in his ability to manage Arsenal is a run of less challenging matches. Yes, West Ham are next up, but it’s at the Emirates and the Hammers are missing three key players due to injury. After that, the three fixtures before 2022 arrives with a bang in the shape of Manchester City are all definitely winnable, and the Gunners really need to be taking maximum points to compensate for the abysmal run of matches that started with the 4-0 thumping at Anfield.   Yesterday, in a welcome 3pm Saturday kick off, Southampton were the perfect opposition for Arsenal to begin climbing out of the hole they had dug themselves into. Very much relegation candidates, they’d taken two points from their last four matches.   The pre-match buildup was dom...

Southampton 1 Arsenal 3 Premier League Tuesday 26th January 2021 8.15pm Three days after the miserable cup exit at St Mary’s, Arsenal returned to the scene of their disgrace in miserable weather, but with a performance that re-ignited belief in what Mikel Arteta is trying to do, and moving up to the lofty heights of 8th place in the table, with a 3-1 victory. There were five changes from the team that started on Saturday, as Luiz, Partey, Saka, Smith Rowe and Lacazette replaced Gabriel, Elneny, Martinelli, Willian and Nketiah. Things didn’t start well as Lacazette failed to convert a one-on-one with the keeper and Southampton took the lead from a corner kick. Pepe simply didn't pay any attention to the player he was marking, allowing Armstrong to fire the ball past Bernd Leno in the third minute. No matter, things got seriously better after that, as Arsenal’s front players worked hard to press Southampton deep, forcing them to play it long. Five minutes after his aberration, Pepe r...

Southampton 1 Arsenal 0 FA Cup 4th  Round Saturday 23rd  January 2021 12.15pm Southampton fielded a strong team that looked like they cared about progressing into the last 16 of the FA Cup a little more than Mikel Arteta, who mixed things up to give gametime to some second stringers. Away against a team above them in the league, one that they have struggled to beat in recent encounters, it indicated Arteta’s priorities. Tuesday evening’s Premier League visit to the same opposition is more important.   Consequently, the mix and match side that took on the Saints produced an impotent, disjointed performance. We’ve actually seen the first eleven play like this a good number of times this season, and one has to ask what is actually happening on the training ground to produce such unwatchable fare. Some of the players simply aren’t of the required standard, and there’s little point hoping that either Eddie Nketiah or Pepe will come good, or that Willian will ever consistently ...

Arsenal 1 Southampton 1 Premier League Wednesday 16th December 2020, 6pm On the upside, a very unwelcome record was avoided, as Arsenal avoided a fifth consecutive home league defeat. And there were signs of life in the sick patient in the form of Bukayo Saka, who showed a willingness to try and makes things happen, resulting in Arsenal’s third goal in their last nine Premier League outings. But overall, pickings were slim if we are looking for the green shoots of recovery in last night’s fixture at home to Southampton, a game that in the old days felt like a guaranteed three points. The real star of the evening lined up for the visitors, as Theo Walcott both scored the opening goal, and drew the foul that saw an Arsenal player sent off for the third time in recent weeks. It really felt like Arteta’s defence were playing too high a line, even if Theo’s pace isn’t what it used to be.   At least the manager had the sense to drop Willian and Lacazette, two of the most underperfor...