Arsenal 1 v 2 Southampton

Arsenal 1 v 2 Southampton

Ospina

Belerin                 Chambers            Monrael                Coquelan

Diaby                    Rosicky                 Wilshire

Campbell              Podolski               Sanchez

Start as you’ve been going on: some shocking centre-half play. I was a shockingly bad and pretty unenthusiastic centre-half. For quite a number of years. Having played upfront and had to endure seasons of backpass-exploiting negative defending, when it was my turn, goalkeepers couldn’t pick up backpasses, I wasn’t allowed those achillies-crunching from-behind tackles, not without (another) card and fine. So I know a bit about playing centre-half, badly, and we’re doing a lot of that, this season.

Rosicky had a chance for us, but, bless him , he isn’t the best header of the ball, ever. He probably isn’t the best header of a ball in his family.

They were, however, zipping the passes about well, then Alexis scored from a free kick. It wasn’t so great to watch, as it was on a stop / go, frequently-buffering Arabic telly channel. I don’t know what language it was in, the it was an ideal language for sports commentary, great for conveying urgency and excitement. There’s some consonants in the corners of every foreign tongue that are forever Welsh-sounding.

I didn’t see the Southampton penno, trying to pick up a better stream. I wonder if Wenger’s ever used that form of “I didn’t see it” excuse?

“I was a little bit distracted because the Egypt Channel 19, it keeps buffering, yes? So I didn’t see the incident, but I zinc it was a certainly little bit ‘arsh, no?”

The rest was in French.

They smashed a second, and we couldn’t get an equaliser, or extra time, or penalties, or go any further in the competition. Which, when it happens (the early exit) is always bit of a shame, because it stops the younger / fringe / returning from injury players from having that outlet, and that opportunity to get in ninety competitive minutes.

That’s the end of that, anyway. Something tells me that Wenger’s latest assembly adds up to less than the sum of its parts at the moment, and that he’s not helping much. Maybe the second-string cup competition ought to represent an opportunity for someone else to occupy the managerial hotseat? Money, not success, seems to be the club’s overriding concern, and that’s wrong. I tire of all that “we can’t compete with Citeh and the Chavs” nonsense. We could, were we to get a similar financially beneficial owner.