We badly miss Theo Walcott, I’d much rather have Theo alongside Bendtner for a stretch of games than having a back up striker. We really do not have any players who are looking to run in behind. One time in the first half, Serge Gnabry cut inside and was heading infield creating spaces, given that Southampton were pressing high, they had quite a tasty high line to try and get into. As Gnabry drifting inside, Santi on the left came towards the ball with his hand outstretched indicating for the German to pass him the ball to feet. There wasn’t any need for that, Gnabry had space to move into and we need players to run into scoring positions so they can be found and not only to come short to get the ball into feet just like everybody else wants to do in our team.

So a point at Saint Mary’s ey?

Very difficult to digest everything about the match last night. Recent Southampton results indicate that we should be disappointed with the draw but the performance of the home team means that a draw was a more than acceptable result in the end.

Southampton are far better than their recent results suggest but given the difficulty of the fixture list coming up you cannot help but feel that all three points were needed to give us a slight cushion at least for the short term. But it should tell you how far we’ve come on this season when so many Arsenal supporters are feeling so deflated with an away draw to a good mid-table side.

The first half was probably the half that gave us the most problems so far this season. Southampton had more control over the game than we witnessed in Dortmund, Manchester City and Manchester United.

I wrote in the preview how I feared for our passing against the Southampton pressing game without a more natural box to box midfielder in place of one of Arteta or Flamini. It looked a big problem to me as we struggled to build up our game from the back. The Saints were relentless off the ball and Wengerball was practically nulifed. With Wilshere and Ramsey out through injury there was little else the manager could do though.

When Mertesacker made a tackle in our own half I noticed Mertesacker’s reaction and knew he must have won the ball. The replays showed that Per had won the ball cleanly but referee Lee Mason missed it and gave the foul. Typically the home side scored from it when Fonte won a header at the far post that looked like a foul against Monreal and the ball squeezed past Szczesny’s near post.

The young 18 year old making his debut for Southampton should have made it 2-0 when it miskicked a Monreal mistake from close range but it flew past the post.

We had spent almost the entire game defending and then trying to get out of our half before losing the ball again.

After a half as bad as ours we could only improve and we got that improved Arsenal. A team willing to play quicker and more directly to escape the Saints suffocation. We did just that and from being a goal down we managed to turn it around in a matter of minutes.

Giroud flicked in Sagna’s attempt on goal and then Cazorla kept up his excellent scoring record of recent weeks by hitting across the ball and past the keeper.

I was still in celebration mode when Southampton and the impressive Adam Lallana swept in the equaliser.

We badly miss Theo Walcott, I’d much rather have Theo alongside Bendtner for a stretch of games than having a back up striker. We really do not have any players who are looking to run in behind. One time in the first half, Serge Gnabry cut inside and was heading infield creating spaces, given that Southampton were pressing high, they had quite a tasty high line to try and get into. As Gnabry drifted inside, Santi on the left came towards the ball with his hand outstretched indicating for the German to pass him the ball to feet. There wasn’t any need for that, Gnabry had space to move into and we needed someone to make a run behind the Southampton defenders.

It is this reason why I think losing Walcott is a far bigger blow than not having another striking option up front.

At 2-2 the game could have been either sides to win until Flamini went diving in two footed totally unnecessarily. As soon as I saw it I feared the worst so surely Flamini knew the dangers before he decided it was a good idea. I bet your bottom dollar that Podolski would have replaced Flamini had he not got himself sent off. But going down to 10 men ruined that possibility completely.

Oxlade-Chamberlain and Gibbs had come on before the late introduction of Lukas Podolski with only minutes to spare, in place of the tireless Giroud.

I wondered before the game, if Podolski doesn’t start after his brace on Friday then he has no future at Arsenal. Arsene and Lukas said that his fitness was much better, he had scored twice making that 5 in his last 6 yet Arsene went with 18 year old Serge Gnabry.

Reading between the lines, Arsene seems to feel that Podolski does not offer enough without the ball from a defensive stand point. Maybe even a creative one also. Arsene has already questioned his fitness levels publicly a few times and the managers praise for his finishing will feel rather hollow as long as the player remains on the bench.

I suspect the loveable German will be seeking pastures new in the summer.

Mesut Özil grew into the second half and I think we are starting to see him blossom into a Premier League player rather than a super talented import. He drove us on and skipped past challenges, trying to make things happen. His drive from inside our half to the Saints penalty area only for his shot to deflect over the keeper and onto the top of the crossbar was lovely. I’d love to see more of that. An in form Walcott playing with Mesut in that form would have seen us leave with three points but it wasn’t to be in the end.

We wanted all three, could have easily come away with zero but gained one.

There is a lot of supporter self protection going on now. ‘We won’t finish in the top four now let alone challenge’ is a little bit like getting rejected by your school crush and then following it up with ‘I didn’t like her anyway, it was just a joke’

Truth is there will be twists and turns from now until the finishing line from all the competing teams not just Arsenal. Obviously we are all hoping to win every single game but realistically it isn’t going to happen so we have to hope we can bounce back and click back into gear.

Crystal Palace on the weekend at home is next up, so that is a great place to start.

’till tomorrow.

Extra Reading: Southampton (a) – Dragging their Arses, Zil your Lips & More – Iron Man’s Match Thoughts