The goalless draw with Southampton saw the Gunners’ run without a goal in the top flight extend to 300 minutes, a sequence that has seen Arsene Wenger’s team drop off the pace in the Premier League title race.
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Arsenal were on top of the Premier League at the start of the year but have since capitulated their command of the division, are now in fourth place and trail league leaders Leicester City by five points.
The Frenchman was again left frustrated and several newspapers reported a tunnel spat with referee Lee Mason and Saints boss Ronald Koeman at full-time following their third draw in four games.
“If you knew a world-class striker who could have strengthened our team, you should have told me before the transfer deadline was over”, he said.
The Saints manager added: “You had 10 chances to score and couldn’t take any of them so why have a go at them?”
“We put the energy level in, we created chances but our finishing was poor and at the end of the day we paid for that”, he said. In a game like that when you create chances you want to win. We have played three Premier League games now without scoring a goal.
Fraser Forster “robbed” Arsenal of victory, Petr Cech has said, after watching the Southampton goalkeeper deliver a man-of-the-match performance at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday.
But their performances have picked up in recent weeks, winning three games in a row, all without conceding a goal.
“We have Walcott, we have Giroud, we have Ozil, we have Alexis, we have Welbeck, who is coming back”. Some players missed chances they should take and our finishing is very bad at the moment. The second half was one-way traffic but we still couldn’t score, we didn’t make enough of our set pieces.
After a two week break for FA Cup and Champions League games, the Gunners then visit Manchester United, prior to a home tie with Swansea. “We need to respond now”. And one of the things hitting Arsenal fans the hardest is that our north London rivals Tottenham have gone ahead of us in the table for the first time this season.
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“Tonight, I don’t think that a miracle man would have come in and scored for us”.
