Before the game I'd have taken a point, but I still couldn't help feel frustrated following Arsenal's 1-1 draw at Southampton.
Once again we were punished for a slow start by conceding an early goal. We at least got a share of the spoils this time thanks to Olivier Giroud's late header, but there was far too much tippy tappy passing again.
We controlled possession and had more chances, but we didn't do enough with it. We passed far too often when some of the time we should have just got a shot in to test Fraser Forster in the Southampton goal.
A point at St Mary's isn't a bad result, but not making the most of periods of dominance leaves me with an all too familiar feeling of frustration.
Although Charlie Austin deserves credit for good control and a calm finish on the half-volley from Dusan Tadic's reverse pass, the defence in the build-up should have been a lot better than it was.
Austin was clearly in confident mood as the striker forced a save from Petr Cech before seeing another shot hit a post and this was all inside the opening 10 minutes.
Once we got going we started to play better, but we really need to work on our starts having conceded early in our last two league matches. We also need to be more clinical with our chances as Alexandre Lacazette tamely shot at Forster in the first half.
Cech kept the score down by tipping over a looping free-kick from James Ward-Prowse, but at the other end Arsenal failed to make the most of their first-half chances. Hector Bellerin's low cross was met by Aaron Ramsey, but Forster made a decent save low and to his left to deny the Welsh midfielder.
Lacazette blazed over the crossbar in the closing stages of the first half, but Arsenal seemed to improve after the break with more attacking purpose in the second half albeit with too much tippy tappy passing. Southampton though were creating the better chances and Arsenal didn't call Forster into action nearly as much as they should have done.
Ramsey dragged a low shot wide, while Oriol Romeu's long-range strike hit the crossbar and Ryan Bertrand somehow sent an effort off target at the other end.
Arsenal came close to levelling the scores five minutes from time, but Forster produced a decent save to punch the ball away from Alexis Sanchez's free-kick. But two minutes from time Arsenal grabbed an equaliser as substitute Giroud glanced a header beyond Forster from Sanchez's cross.
We probably deserved the point, but if we had started the match better from minute one who knows what might have happened. Lessons must be learned and quickly as if this continues we won't always get away with a point.
OPPOSITION VIEW
Southampton fan Mavis John found plenty of reason to be positive with the result.
"When Charlie Austin scored in the third minute, I couldn't quite believe that we could hold onto the lead," said John. "However, as the match progressed, it seemed that we were deserving of our lead - so I was actually disappointed that it finished in a draw.
"The introduction of Charlie Austin into the starting line-up, as opposed to him playing a bit part as a sub, has made a positive difference to Saints - as, indeed, have several other changes Pellegrino has recently made to his starting line-up.
"Saints definitely seem to be playing with more creativity and self-belief, but we still have the problem in many matches of not being able to make the most of our chances and score.
"That happened against Arsenal. However, the fact that we were able to keep Arsenal at bay, even when they really got into the game, is cause for more optimism than we felt earlier in the season."
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
It was a fairly decent result, but definitely not the ideal performance. A slow start nearly saw us come out of a game with nothing for the second week running, but luckily Giroud saved our blushes.
There is no denying Giroud made a great and decisive impact, but with the players at our disposal should we really be having to rely on being rescued by a late goal? Credit must go to Southampton though as it wasn't all about us passing too much and defending poorly at times. Southampton put in some great challenges and battled hard to make it a tough contest and St Mary's is a hard place to go.
We play West Ham twice, in the league and then Carabao Cup, either side of the visit of Newcastle. These are the kind of matches we need to be getting maximum points from if we are truly wanting to challenge the teams around us.
West Ham's recent victory over Chelsea gave us a great chance to make up ground on the current champions, but we failed to do so and we need to start making things count.
Let's hope Arsenal travel to West Ham and show us the kind of performance they put in against Tottenham and not the ones from our last two league matches.
The performance needs to go up another few levels and we need to make sure that this time we start strongly!
COME ON YOU GUNNERS
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