Arsenal finally broke their losing streak at home in the Premier League, but we couldn’t get the three points.
Our commitment to shooting ourselves in the foot is absolutely incredible. Gabriel got himself two yellow cards to take our red card tally to three for the season and seven under Arteta in less than 12 months.
Arsenal looked good in the second half until the dismissal – very similar to last week. Southampton couldn’t get on the ball at the start of the second period, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang broke his drought with a very well taken goal.
The Gunners skipper needed that. The whole team need that. That goal would have given Auba the confidence he needs to kick on, but he still feels our players are doing ‘bad things’ on the pitch, and he thinks he knows why.
Auba: Nerves are making us do bad things
Aubameyang told Amazon Prime Video after the game: “It was tough at the end but the team gave everything to get that point. And yeah we did it. We’re a bit disappointed because we couldn’t win this game but sometimes this happens.”
“At the moment we are a bit nervous because we need points and sometimes we do bad things. This happens when you need points, we have to stay cold with the head.”
Nerves are understandable considering how we have fared this season. Just four wins in 13 games is a shocking record, and just 11 goals in that period makes it more difficult for players to believe that they can get a result.
Going down to 10 men game after game isn’t helping us either. Arteta needs to have a serious word with all of his players about their discipline.
Yes, it wasn’t a heated reaction like Xhaka and Pepe’s was when they saw red, but it was still avoidable. If Gabriel hadn’t done that, we could have gone on to win the game quite comfortably. But, it wasn’t meant to be and the pressure on Arteta’s shoulders remains the same.
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