New year but same old problems for Arsenal

Arsenal's start to the new year was not a happy one. 2015 started off for Arsenal in the worst possible fashion with a defeat. The Gunners traveled to the south coast in search of their third win on the trot but as a place in the top four beckoned they blew it in typical Arsenal style. For once we had our best four defenders on the pitch but that didn't make a different as mistakes littered our performance as Southampton beat us 2-0 in relatively comfortable fashion. The fixtures recently have been very hectic but fatigue wasn't the problem, we were quite frankly rubbish, and deservedly got punished. The line-up saw three changes from the win over West Ham as Gibbs, Rosicky and Chambers who started in midfield, came in for Monreal, the injured Welbeck and Flamini receptively.

Wojciech Szczesny was at fault for both of the hosts goals

Many fans would be forgiven for thinking that Arsenal's catastrophic way to start 2015 was because of our midfield. Those that watched the game though would have noticed that it wasn't because of Coquelin and Chambers having to play in the holding roles. It was instead our first choice back four. We've waited ages to see Koscielny return to the defence and when we finally look to have a solid platform we crumble at the back. A host of errors led to both Southampton goals, goals that saw us suffer a disappointing loss, especially after two wins over the festive period. It was a huge missed opportunity to gain on Manchester United and also pass Southampton in the race for Champions League football next campaign.

The blame for the goals could be put on two or three players but the main cause for concern was Wojciech Szczesny. He looked in top form against West Ham a few days previous but his performance against the Saints was as far from convincing as you could get. For the first goal he decided to race out of his goal and leave the net exposed after Mane had brushed off Koscielny. The Senegalese international then chipped the ball over the keeper and beyond Mertesacker who in all honesty did a pretty bad job at trying to prevent a goal by clearing it off the line. The second was also very poor defending. The ball in from Davis wasn't cleared by Debuchy and then Szczesny gifted the ball to Tadic who effectively had an open net to fire into. Although the Gunners slipped up late against Liverpool a few weeks back, they had been resolute in their defending late on in their previous two games. Southampton was a completely different story though.

It's impossible to pick out any positives from this game, and the start to 2015 was horrendous. Santi Cazorla was in fine form over the festive period and he had a great chance in the first half to open the scoring but instead stuck his chance straight at Forster in goal who also made some top saves to deny Sanchez. I suppose the only positive was Theo Walcott playing half an hour towards the end but even then he had little impact on the game, and our late exchanges which saw Santi fire over and Coquelin hoist a pass out of play summed the day up.

Arsenal's fate may have already been sealed before today though. Despite the defensive problems we offered very little in attack. Welbeck was out injured which meant Alexis had to lead the line and became very isolated, just as he did in the opening weeks of the season when he had to play there. Of course the other absentee was Olivier Giroud whose red card on Boxing Day possibly cost us yesterday's game and is why our fate had already been sealed. Without him, or a recognised striker our link-up play was not at its best and we didn't have a focal point to aim for in attack. We were heavily outnumbered on the height front too. 

Lukas Podolski missed out through injury, and he looks set to be on his way to Inter Milan this month but the fact we had to bring on 17 year old Chuba Akpom in the dieing moments to bring us a goal  summed up our arduous season so far. No disrespect to Akpom but we shouldn't have had to have brought him on to try and save the game when you're a club of our size.

Hull City in the FA Cup looms this weekend and we'll have to be heavily improved if we want to progress and defend the trophy we won last year. An event that seems a long time ago now.

Southampton: Forster, Alderweireld, Fonte, Gardos(71), Bertrand, Wanyama, Davis, Ward-Prowse, Mane(42), Tadic(84), Pelle. 
Subs: Davis, Yoshida(71), Targett, McCarthy, Isgrove, Long(84), Reed(42). 

Arsenal: Szczesny, Debuchy(84), Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Chambers(60), Coquelin, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Rosicky, Cazorla, Alexis.
Subs: Martinez, Monreal, Bellerin, Maitland-Niles, Campbell, Walcott(60), Akpom(84). 

Referee: Craig Pawson.
Attendance: 31,492.