Wenger Arsenal have a mental problem
Southampton 1 Arsenal 1
ARSENE WENGER slammed his players mental strength after a sinful display against the Saints.
Just when it looked as though the Gunners had finally turned the corner, they laboured their way to a point against lowly Southampton.
And they only got that thanks to an own goal from Guly Do Prado, who sliced Theo Walcotts free-kick past keeper Artur Boruc.
Wenger, whose side were looking for a fifth successive Premier League win, said: Considering our performance, I dont think we deserved any more.
It is nothing to do with the physical side. Maybe we thought we scored seven against Newcastle so we would score seven again.
I felt that we lacked purpose in our game and it was more a mental thing.
It is two points lost if you look at the overall target we had for Christmas. It is frustrating and disappointing as we didnt create a lot. Our game lacked purpose, penetration and speed all qualities we usually have.
It is frustrating. There was no specific reason for it. We prepared well and maybe Southampton deserve some credit as well.
We did not have enough quality to take them out of position and take advantage of that. We have to analyse that together and see why, as we have big games coming up and we want to get back to our normal level of performance.
Theo Walcott was the stand-out performer against Newcastle with a hat-trick but his supply line was blocked here and his chances were limited.
He lacked the potency he has displayed in recent weeks as Arsenal mustered just one miserly shot on target.
But Wenger refused to blame the 23-year-old, who was making his first return to St Marys since his £12million move in 2006.
The Emirates boss added: Theo didnt get enough service. We didnt find good enough positions to express something different offensively.
Gunners keeper Wojciech Szczesny admitted his side were fortunate to sneak back to the capital with a point.
The Polish stopper said: We are disappointed as we feel we should be getting three points from games like this.
On the other hand you have to give credit to Southampton. They defended very well and created some chances at the other end as well.
They were terrific and probably deserved a draw.
Im disappointed because we havent kept a clean sheet in three games now and I enjoy my clean sheets.
We felt we got away with it a bit as we played with the handbrake on in the first half and just managed to score before half-time.
Saints boss Nigel Adkins was delighted his side earned a point after they were hammered 6-1 by the Gunners in September. The point also lifted them out of the bottom three on goal difference.
Adkins said: Arsenal have been beating teams out of sight recently. They scored a goal thanks to a deflection but apart from that our keeper did not have much else to do.
We had a good defensive shape. The whole team were bang on to restrict Arsenal to limited opportunities and when we got the ball we had some chances ourselves.
The performance demonstrates that everyone is working very hard and fighting for each other. That is now just two defeats in 10 games.
It shows how far we have come because we got a good hiding down at the Emirates at the start of the campaign.
