Arsenal draw a blank against Southampton to fall further off the pace of Leicester City #AFCvSFC

 

Southampton’ goalkeeper Fraser Forster makes a save during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Southampton at the Emirates Stadium.

For Arsenal a tremor that started as a festive flinch has turned into a full-on winter wobble. A goalless draw with Southampton on a fretful night at the Emirates leaves Arsène Wenger’s team without a goal in their past three league games and with a title challenge that looks increasingly snarled in the midwinter gloom.

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Fraser Forster was brilliant, a goalkeeper who combines prodigious size and brawn with a balletic agility producing a full range of saves from the athletic to the instinctive. But Arsenal were also lacklustre for the first hour and hesitant in their finishing even as the chances began to flow, with an attack that looked more than ever like one elite German playmaker plus a group of mid-ranking hopefuls. Despite a blizzard of chances in the final 20 minutes Southampton were largely undisturbed, with Forster a thrillingly resolute yellow wall. “He was magic,” Ronald Koeman purred.

Four points clear of Manchester City on Christmas Day, Arsenal now find themselves in fourth place having won two of their past seven league games, a run that began with the 4-0 Boxing Day defeat by Southampton. Wenger’s excuses this week for that flaccid performance – “it was Christmas” – seemed a little odd, but they came with the promise Arsenal would look to start with purpose here.

Or not, as it turned out. There are times where the more potent atmosphere of a smaller, less commercially accessible stadium might be a genuine asset to this team. Instead, in almost total silence from London’s largest home crowd, it was Southampton who began with more composure, James Ward-Prowse drawing an early save from Petr Cech with a driven free-kick.

Arsenal made seven changes from the FA Cup victory against Burnley, the most notable the return of Mesut Özil to start alongside Alexis Sánchez for the first time since November. It was Özil who had Arsenal’s first chance with 12 minutes gone, running on to Sánchez’s floated pass and taking the most beautiful stone-dead touch only for Forster to save well with his legs as he shot.
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Southampton came to the Emirates having not conceded a goal in 200 minutes of league football, and they looked intent on keeping it that way with Oriol Romeu and Victor Wanyama a muscular double bolt in midfield. Arsenal went wide, Héctor Bellerín skating outside Cédric Soares and producing a fine cross that Olivier Giroud headed back across goal. Özil flicked towards an apparently gaping net from five yards out only to see Forster, spreading his arms, produce a genuinely stunning save. With half-time approaching Özil was again crowded out inside the six-yard box after good work from Joel Campbell. But it was Southampton, composed in defence and intermittently energetic in support of Shane Long, who looked the happier team at the break.

Arsenal returned energised – these things are relative – and almost scored straight away, Forster again outstanding. This time it was after a fine driving run by Ramsey, Forster leaping high, superhero-style, to palm away Giroud’s hooked shot. Still, though, Romeu, Wanyama and Ward-Prowse kept a grip on central midfield, while Sadio Mané flickered at the other end. Giroud looked cumbersome linking the play, Campbell energetic but vague. With Sánchez still finding his gears and Ramsey filling a hole in central midfield, Wenger’s starting team here looked alarmingly dependent on Özil for creativity.


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Theo Walcott came on just past the hour mark, a man for a crisis perhaps, but a man also with one Premier League goal since September. Walcott drew a double save from Forster, the first a weak low shot with time to think, the second a thrash at chest height. Moments later Laurent Koscielny headed Özil’s fizzed cross over the bar from three yards out.

Suddenly the chances were coming. Romeu kicked off the line after Sánchez’s neat turn and poked shot. Özil and Sánchez combined only for Forster, again, to claw the ball away. Chasing a goal at the last Wenger sent on Francis Coquelin who was immediately booked for an angry tackle on Long. Six minutes of added time brought a strangled roar of hope from the home fans but Southampton remained spiky and resilient to the end.

Arsenal will feel they should have won this match, but there has been a sense of declining momentum about them since Christmas. Missing Santi Cazorla’s guile – and to a lesser degree the urgency of Jack Wilshere and Danny Welbeck – it seems increasingly odd even the famously parsimonious Wenger could look at this squad over two transfer windows and decide against going all-out for a first-team-ready outfield player. With new arrivals, new eras, fresh rounds of likely acquisitions announced elsewhere in the Premier League this week, it was a particularly galling night to come up short again.