Southampton vs. Arsenal

1-1, Premier League, St. Mary's Stadium, 2013-01-01
Do Prado (og) 41

Unfortunately we did not manage to continue 2013 as we ended 2012. The Arsenal on display today was hardly recognisable from the team that beat Newcastle just a few days ago, and the starting eleven for both of these games was exactly the same! It is certainly disappointing to drop points considering that we had four consecutive games ahead of this game.

Five minutes into the game Cazorla had a shot deflected just wide and about ten minutes later Podolski's shot from close range was blocked. After those first fifteen minutes the game slowed down considerably and it was not until ten minutes before half-time that some action was introduced again, yet it was not a good kind of action for us. Southampton scored after some chaos in our box where Sagna cleared the ball straight to a Southampton player and our early possession proved useless. However, we got lucky as Do Prado scored an own goal five minutes before the break as Walcott produced a great free-kick. The English striker scored a goal of his own in the very last minute, but unfortunately for us it was ruled offside.

The second half began with a brilliant Szczesny save on the line from a corner, which was followed by a quarter of an hour of rather slow and uninteresting play. Then, in the final twenty minutes of the game, both teams really went for the win. Walcott had a shot saved by the keeper and Southampton scored, yet that goal was not given by the referee due to a push on Koscielny. With ten minutes to go Arteta fired a powerful long-range shot just wide and Gervinho did not fare better with a close-range shot. In the final minutes Szczesny made a decent save as Southampton had a shot on goal and Gibbs provided a great cross that was blocked by a Southampton defender.

So our good run of victories is over, but that just means that we need to start a new one! Next weekend we face Swansea away in the FA-cup and the weekend after that it is time for Manchester City at the Emirates, which ought to be interesting.

Injury Update:
- Mertesacker has recovered from illness but started this game on the bench.
- Diaby has recently resumed training and should be back fairly soon.