Arsène Wenger had complained bitterly about the referee, Jon Moss. He had sniped at Southampton for being overly physical. And he had given short shrift to questions about new signings. Arsenal bingo players were close to completing their cards, after a surprise and frustrating defeat, and then Wenger allowed them to do so, when he revealed bad news on the injury front.
Jack Wilshere, the manager said, would not be back from the fractured fibula that has destroyed his season until February, at the earliest. There has long been the hope the midfielder would return in January but he is still not back in full training and his progress has been slow.
“He will not be back before February, that’s for sure,” Wenger said. “Is there a comeback date? I say February but, honestly, I don’t know. I let him do his recovery. It’s going slowly. Once he goes outside to train and once he is back again into sharp, hard work, physically, you count five or six weeks. At the moment, he is not there yet.”
It was one of those days for Arsenal, a missed opportunity against opponents who had been in poor form; the kind of day their supporters had hoped was behind them but, in their hearts, knew was not and probably never will be.
Wenger hunted for scapegoats and the obvious one, to his mind, was Moss. Wenger insisted none of Southampton’s first three goals should have stood: because of an offside in the buildup to Cuco Martina’s stunning opener; a foul by Shane Long on Laurent Koscielny before the second; and an erroneously awarded corner on the third. “I cannot take the whistle, [although] I would love to,” Wenger said.
He was also unhappy with Long. “What has he done from the first to the last minute?” Wenger asked, to which the answer should have been: run the channels relentlessly, stretch Arsenal and bully Koscielny and Per Mertesacker. Wenger, though, meant to highlight what he perceived as Long’s overstepping of various marks.
Wenger had a point about Long’s off-the-ball trip on Koscielny, which went undetected but his gripes about the first and third goals were more spurious, in that they did not excuse the defending from his team that followed. Mertesacker failed to get distance on his clearing header, although there was no legislating for Martina’s 30-yard, outside-of-the-boot blockbuster and the marking on the corner for José Fonte’s goal was sloppy.
The reality was that Arsenal got what they deserved from an insipid and heavy-legged performance, and against a Southampton team that were inspired. With Wenger missing seven players through injury, he had named the same side for the fourth time in 17 days. Was it one game too far for them? The problem, though, is that they have another one at home to Bournemouth on Mondayand Wenger’s options for freshening things up are not extensive.
“A lot of the players have not been overloaded,” Wenger said. “If you look at the number of games that Flamini, Ramsey and Campbell have played since the start of the season – even Giroud was out for a while and didn’t play games, Walcott, as well. All these players are not overloaded with games.”
Wenger is close to a permanent deal for the Basel and Egypt midfielder Mohamed Elneny – the 23-year-old is expected to sign shortly after the January transfer window opens – but the manager will generally look for internal solutions, rather like Southampton did here to such spectacular effect.
Martina and Long stepped in after Cédric Soares and Graziano Pellè had been injured in training, and they were part of a radically hardier collective performance. Southampton had drawn one and lost five of their previous six fixtures but their tails are back up for the trip to West Ham United on Monday.
“It was back to basics,” Long said. “There was more mentality, confidence and being positive on the pitch. We had a few meetings and the gaffer made it a bit more fun in training. He had the lads joking and you could see the results.”
Ronald Koeman, though, was not laughing at the lack of preparation time before West Ham United. “It’s impossible to be recovered 100%,” the Southampton manager said. “The players are at risk of serious injury. I like Boxing Day football, the stadiums full of supporters, but to play again in 43 hours, it’s not normal.”
Man of the match Shane Long (Southampton)