Southampton, who looked on top in the battle for midfield supremacy, also had chances, with Oriol Romeu’s effort grazing the roof of the net and Sadio Mane scuffing wide after taking advantage of the Gunners’ square back four.
Advertisement
Saints won the game 4-0 but in his post-match press conference, Wenger said: “The second aspect is that on the first three goals we were really unlucky with the decision of the referee”.
“If you knew a world-class striker who could strengthen our team you should have told me before the transfer deadline”, he said.
This was supposed to be the season that Arsenal finally came of age to win their first league title since 2004, but they will not get there by playing like they did in the first half, when they were jeered off the pitch.
“Our finishing is very bad at the moment – we have played three (league) games now without scoring a goal. We are very happy to have one of the best goalkeepers in our team”, continued Koeman.
“But we have not to look too much at Leicester or Man City, we have to win football games”. Let’s be realistic, even if we are a bit down. “Not one team in one and a half years managing Southampton have created what Arsenal did”, he said.
Fraser Forster was the star for the Saints once again, coming into the game with three clean sheets in as many games since his return from a long injury layoff.
Arsenal will hope to make ground on Claudio Ranieri’s charges when they host eighth-placed Southampton in the league on Tuesday with Leicester welcoming Liverpool at the same time.
With the quality of the players on the pitch it seems fantastic that we can’t score.
“The only thing you could say was their goalkeeper had a great performance”.
“After that, we met up at Newbury district level at a tournament in Jersey and then I got picked up from Southampton and went my separate way”.
The only downside was that new signing Charlie Austin missed the game after picking up a knock in training.
Advertisement
The recent defeat to Chelsea, in which Per Mertesacker was sent off for a professional foul, ended a nine-match unbeaten run at home in the league since the opening-day defeat to West Ham. They do not walk in off the street and say please take me.
