What a choke job, bottle-job, embarrassment, etc. Whatever you want to call a team putting up a shockingly embarrassing performance in high-pressure situations where you are heavily favored, Arsenal just did that times a billion. I am being dramatic and might have some hyperbole in there but as a highly emotional, overly invested fan, this team is everything to me and the players/coaches/management just sold me down the river for slaughter.
Arsenal in their past two games before yesterday blew consecutive 2-0 leads which led to 2-2 draws against Liverpool and West Ham (relegation fodder) to drop 4 points in a highly competitive and tight PL title race against arguably the best team in the world (Man City). And yesterday they outdid themselves in the most Arsenal fashion ever by drawing 3-3 AT HOME (AT YOUR OWN DAMN STADIUM WHERE THE MAJOJRITY OF HOME CROWD ACTIVELY ROOTS AND SUPPORT YOU) to the last place team in the league (20th place), heavily struggling Southampton to extend their league to 5 points at the top of the league with City having two games in hand. Just a nightmarish scenario for all fragile Arsenal fans out there. 6 points dropped in 3 games. You can’t make this stuff up but for Arsenal fans, we are numb to this crap at this point. Our next game is at the Etihad against Man City in a game where we must win, HA. At this point, City couldn’t be in better form and we are looking like greased up fat pigs for slaughter, just end me at this point before next Wednesday.
THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:
- Arsenal weren’t ready before I got my ass on the couch: I decided to work from home yesterday cause I knew Arsenal were playing at 3pm. No question, no brainer from me. As soon as 2:59pm hits, I get up, turn on the tv to the USA channel, and before all the hairs on my legs and ass could fully get acclimated to the couch, I see Ramsdale stupidly pass the ball to Alcaraz on Southampton and calmly slots it past him to the far post. Not even 20 seconds in. I’m fuming at this point in how careless Ramsdale could be to just put us in that position.
And what followed after that was sloppy, inept play from Arsenal, yeah we had most of the possession and had some feeble attempts on goal but nothing that put the Saints in real pressure before the former Arsenal man Theo Walcott put us two goals down off a brain-dead giveaway and counter from Arsenal. A dumb pass from Odegaard, Fabio not showing for himself, Gabriel caught ball watching, just stuff that really makes you want to end it. Just a friendly reminder this is to the team that is sitting in last place at the league.
We quickly found our goal back to make it 2-1 from a Martinelli finish and now you think game-on, no doubt we claw another one back and finish them off in the 2nd half.
I swear then the most Arsenal thing ever happened. Off a set-piece, where before Thomas Partey like a freaking idiot gives the ball up for a corner, Arsenal just with a simple kick and flick of the dumb ball, Caleta-Car found himself sitting alone, with enough time to cure cancer, travel to Manchester and back from London, and then conceive a child with a random lady; wait 9 months and then have his kid before an Arsenal player would defend him which led the Saints to extend their joke of a lead to 3-1.
Arsenal then had the audacity to fight back to 3-3 threw repeated onslaughts and attacks but doesn’t really matter to me if we didn’t get 3 points and we didn’t. You can argue that this point could mean everything in the end, but it really doesn’t when City are in the form that they are in and we are in the form that we are in. The Arsenal players failed themselves, the club and most importantly the fans with that performance yesterday, no Arsenal fan an demand perfection or certainty in pursuit of titles, but what we can demand is not have these players shit themselves in embarrassing fashion when the lights get brighter. Just a disaster from start to finish as we find ourselves in a hole that I don’t think an animal could find themselves out of.
2. Arrogance, carelessness, and weakness just spewing out of Arsenal at the moment: Aaron Ramsdale blatantly giving Southampton a goal, giving up easy flicks off corners, Arteta continuously playing Rob Holding, Kent continuously watching this team let him down etc. Whatever that dumb quote is on how people repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting different results is Arsenal in a nutshell. Arsenal through the years, have just spewed weakness physically and mental fragility that has made us a meme over the years, compounded that reputation ten-fold yesterday. But I stand by this, what happened yesterday, is a new low for me (yes highly irrational and overdramatic), hear me out, a PL title on the line, not a Top 4 place, not Europa league final, not a FA Cup final, not a Carabao Cup final, this is for damn league title (something Arsenal haven’t done in 20 years). What I felt yesterday was worse than losing to Chelsea in a Europa League final 4-1, it was way worse than getting embarrassed by City in the Carabao Cup final in 2018, way worse than blowing a 4 goal lead to Newcastle in 2011, worse than getting a man sent off in the first half in a Champions League final to Barcelona, than all the chokes, what happened yesterday culminating in a 3 game span where we dropped 6 points in a PL title is the worse thing I have experienced as an Arsenal fan.
3. No way back now: What happens next Wednesday against Man City at the Etihad will be Arsenal’s biggest game since the debacle in Paris against Barcelona in the Champions League final. Arsenal ultimately haven’t had a decent shot at winning the title since the last time we won it in 2003-2004 as the only times we have finished 2nd since, 2004-2005 not even close to that Mourinho Chelsea team and 10 points back off Leicester in 2016/2017. This is as close as we have been in my lifetime and fandom for Arsenal probably against the best team this league has ever seen. Man City have maybe turned the PL into a true farmers league with a possible 5th league title in 6 years. What Bayern and PSG do to their domestic league is what Pep has created in apparently the world’s most competitive division. It’s a lot to deal with for the young Arsenal squad but we wouldn’t have put ourselves in this must win game if we haven’t squandered leads and games to the league’s whipping boys West Ham and Southampton. No excuses at all anymore, just go out there and not act like dickheads for one freaking time.
PLAYER RATINGS:
Ramsdale: 1/10 – trying to win a title and you’re giving away goals for fun
Ben White: 5/10: reliable defensively but is not your typical storming down the flank RB like Dumfries or Hakimi
Holding: 3/10: Didn’t do anything materially wrong but his presence just makes everything worse. It’s the little things with him, in the moments Rob Holding hurriedly clears the ball, Saliba would calmly bring the ball down and find an Arsenal teammate. There are levels to this and I don’t ever want to see him in an Arsenal shirt, imagining trying to compete for a title with Rob Holding, give me a break.
Gabriel: 4/10 – needs to do way better on that Walcott goal
Zinchenko: 4/10 – For someone that is so technically gifted and skilled, plays some of the dumbest and reckless balls in dangerous areas
Thomas Partey: 3/10 – I am the biggest Thomas Partey fan which means I hold him to the highest standards but he was abysmal yesterday. Gave the ball up constantly, inaccurate passing and gave up the corner on their 3rd goal. Then takes the dumbest shot from 30 yards out for no reason in the dying minutes of the game. Just a terrible performance from arguably our best player.
Fabio Vieira: 2/10 – Useless, just useless. Arteta made a big call in starting him when Xhaka went down to an illness and he made Arteta look like a freaking fool, weak, hid from the ball, was never a true threat to Southampton
Odegaard: 5/10 – Worked his ass off for us but as captain, should take responsibility for how inept and sloppy we were yesterday.
Saka: 5/10 – Started well and faded, disappointed he got Perraud booked early but never went at him again to force a red. Disappointed in him, expected more from him after his missed pen and performance against West Ham
Gabriel Martinelli: 6/10 – got himself a goal and at least provided a constant threat to Southampton, looked the more threatening compared to Saka.
Gabriel Jesus: 6/10 – Worked his ass as well but never was able to put it all together for a goal
Arteta: 0/10 – I’d be fired from my job iff I made mind-numbing decisions that had the same effect and result that starting Rob Holding does. Imagine if I mispresented by financial analysis so much that it put my employer in legal trouble, same action
Emile Smith Rowe: 0/10 – How are you so bad that you can’t get game time in front of Fabio Vieira
Anybody that plays against Man City: 0/10 – Somebody have some pride for yourselves and get a freaking result against these clowns
Kent/Arsenal fans: 0/10 – the biggest clown(s) of them all, how dumb do you have to be to just sit there and support this team year after year to have this team laugh and shit on your face while they sell you down the river for pennies to have you then be eaten by some sort of carnivorous water animal to your death to then have you reincarnated into some form of living being in hell where you continuously watch Arsenal choke year after year. That is what Arsenal does to each and every fan to a T, not exaggerating.
Video credits: NBC Sports
featured image credits: Getty