As the goals flooded in, I kept wondering to myself, 'How on earth is this the same team?'
Going from a well-deserved 2-1 win over Manchester City to an utter capitulation in a 4-0 defeat at Southampton left me stunned. I always knew it would be a tough game but I certainly didn't expect that!
Going into the game we had conceded the joint-fewest number of goals in the league this season but that certainly wasn't evident at St Mary's where our defence fell apart, especially in the second half.
The manner of the performance was very disappointing and there can be no excuses from our players, who should have shown a lot more fight and hunger to win. After Leicester's defeat by Liverpool we knew that victory would've put us top of the table and surely that should have been enough motivation for the players to go out there and produce a strong performance. But instead we were truly awful and Southampton were the better side on the day. In my opinion the second goal shouldn't have been given due to a foul in the build up but, in truth, that didn't have too much impact on the game and Southampton were more than worthy winners.
We didn't actually start the game too badly as Olivier Giroud headed over from a Mesut Ozil cross in the opening few minutes. Neither side was playing particularly well and it took a wonder goal from Cuco Martina to break the deadlock. Per Mertesacker's clearance fell to Martina and the 26-year-old connected with the ball with a sublime first-time strike, giving Petr Cech no chance.
Southampton could've been further ahead before the break but Shane Long saw his effort ruled out for a foul on Mertesacker, much to Arsenal's relief.
At the other end Nacho Monreal saw his shot saved by Maarten Stekelenburg, while Theo Walcott twice failed to hit the target as the Gunners struggled to find a way through.
Southampton almost doubled their advantage within five minutes of the restart but Virgil van Dijk's header was ruled out for offside. But the hosts made no mistake five minutes later as Long scored the first of his two goals. The Irish forward latched onto Sadio Mane's pass to score from close range, although some sections of the crowd felt the goal should've been ruled out. In my opinion Laurent Koscielny was fouled in the build up to the goal, but I also genuinely believe that had it been ruled out we still wouldn't have got anything from the game as the performance really was that poor.
Birthday boy Aaron Ramsey was unable to reduce the deficit as a deflection stopped his shot from causing any real danger and things went from bad to worse for Arsenal as Jose Fonte headed home Ryan Bertrand's corner to make it 3-0.
Dusan Tadic forced Cech into an excellent save before Long's shot hit a post as Arsenal's defence continued to look all over the place.
Ozil came close in the latter stages with a shot that rolled across the goal line, but Arsenal really didn't do enough to test Stekelenburg on the night. The Gunners will certainly have to do far better, in both attack and defence, in their upcoming games if they are to turn their season back around.
Arsenal's shaky defence conceded a fourth in stoppage time as Tadic set up Long to calmly slot the ball under Cech and into the net to complete a miserable night for the Gunners.
OPPOSITION VIEW
Southampton fan Mavis John was delighted to see her side return to winning ways but admitted that the referee did make some mistakes on the day.
"After what was becoming a worrying slump, it was great to see Saints playing the kind of football we know they're capable of," said John.
"It was a bit of surprise to see Martina on the team sheet but his wonder strike showed that he's worthy of a start every week.
"It's fair to say that some of the refereeing decisions were questionable but in the end the two disallowed goals were probably evened out by the two that were given. We march on!"
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
It was a truly abysmal display at St Mary's but at least we kept hold of second place, although the result allowed Manchester City to cut the gap on us to just a point. But still being second isn't too much consolation and doesn't disguise the fact we were appalling.
If we can bounce back and beat Bournemouth, with Leicester and Manchester City hopefully drawing, we could yet be top before the end of the year. That seems such a crazy thought after the horror show against Southampton, but we must make sure we move on from that quickly.
Bournemouth have already beaten Manchester United and Chelsea this month so certainly shouldn't be underestimated and we will need a far better performance against the Cherries if we are to get our season back on track.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS
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