Sometimes in football, you get the exact thing you want, and it blows up in your stupid face. That was the Southampton game. I wanted to see heavy rotation, I wanted to see some of the fringe players given a go, and I wanted to see the silky footwork of Max Dowman.

That team only has one player that hasn’t represented their nation at senior level. It had 5 players that earn more than £190k a week. It had Premier League winners, Champions League winners, FA Cup winners… it was enough to beat Southampton.

But how you imagine things happening on paper doesn’t always play out on the big stage, even if that stage was quite little.

Arsenal sh*t on the paper against Southampton is what I’m saying… they gifted the south coast team a pass into the semi finals of the FA Cup.

Were we totally shite? Not really.

We had 23 shots at their goal, hit the target 7 times, and created 1.77 xG.

Were there concerning things happening? Absolutely. But before we get into them, I need everyone to take a beat and remember the key objectives of this season:

WIN A BIG TROPHY

There is literally nothing that will take the edge off that not happening. League Cup? No chance. FA Cup? Nice day out, but not important enough.

Arteta made a very specific choice with the starting 11 and it said a very specific thing about his thinking on the campaign. His priority trophies are the big ones and he knows the only way he’s going to win those is if he looks at our recent history and does something different.

That history if you’ve forgotten:

• Saliba and Tomiyasu broken against Sporting

• Dead legs 2 seasons ago

• Kai broken in Dubai

• Thomas P at right back

• ‘Eddie Nketiah will bang them in’

• Merino as a 9

• Raheem better than you think

• Googles ‘Jack Henry-Francis’ because he’s on the bench against PSG

• Kiwior can handle it, I swear bro!

What was the new move from our more mature manager? He leant into his deep squad to preserve the legs of his best players. Why? Because he’s been given one or two warnings recently by the footballing gods that said ‘if you bury your first team players, I will wreck your season.’

Timber, Eze, Declan, and Zubi were all on the edge and two of them broke… not badly, but badly enough to stop Arteta playing with fire in the hay shed.

What did we, as fans, learn in return? That our view of our squad players is maybe not as informed as we thought. Players we’ve been BEGGING to get minutes showed why they haven’t been getting minutes.

Some names were complacent.

Some looked like the game has passed them by.

Others lacked experience.

Some just don’t have the quality to deliver the Arteta system at its peak.

It was a dreadful performance by Arsenal standards. Our full backs, Myles and White, were awful. Beating up on Moldovan U21s does not mean you’ll translate that into senior football. Ben White looked broken, like the status drop to second choice, and the speed of the game all caught up with him at the same time. I haven’t seen him play that bad since Man City. Those two exposed us to transition balls over the top, putting pressure on Big Gabi, who went off injured.

Christian Mosquera was also pretty poor. Loose passes, bad positioning… it just wasn’t the full ticket.

Norgaard in midfield. I feel for him. He’s just not going to be Zubimendi or Declan Rice. The power isn’t there, the technical level is a long way off, and it made us look porous. It’s not his fault, but the reality is he hasn’t been getting minutes this year because Arteta doesn’t rate him… and based on that 90, he’s right. Lose Zubi or Declan and we’re in Rob Holding for Saliba types of mess.

Then we move to Odegaard and Kai. It just didn’t really click. But I can’t flay them. Kai is a striker. Odegaard is just getting back into the first team. My main hope with those two is they will get fitter, sharper, and they will be difference makers.

Martinelli on the left? Not good enough.

Gabriel Jesus up… wait. Left back, right back, deep-lying 6, right-sided 8. What was he? That was a retirement performance. That was me playing at Live Aid. He knows he’s going this summer, he wants to preserve his body, and he is pissed that the world has passed him by. An absolute nothing performance. I knew he was going to drop a stinker after seeing him get permission to go on Rio’s podcast.

The only player who gets any credit is Max Dowman. He was outrageous. Winning ground duels, beasting full backs, hitting the target with shots, and being the only creative spark in the team. 16 years old? This boy is incredible. He deserved better from his team-mates.

Also, credit to Gyokeres. He scored his 5 goal of the last 10 days off his 5th shot. Monstrous. No one beats up on shit teams like the blonde haired assassin. You know my concerns with him, but when I’m knee sliding across the living room when he’s coming on, you know the other guy has had a very bad outing.

We also need to talk about Kepa… having a keeper that is nowhere near your number 1s level breaks you if your number one is David Raya. I don’t want to go over old ground, but he’s just not that great. He isn’t an outlet, he’s not an attacking threat, and his all-round game is very number 13. He cost us the final and he didn’t help in the quarters.

The loss allows the bores to creep back into the conversation with ‘bottler’ and ‘can’t finish’ the job. We were gifted a path in the FA Cup. We should be in a semi final. We have fallen when we shouldn’t have, again.

But get some f*cking perspective over here. We’re the best team in the Champions League right now. We’re the best team in the Premier League for points, attack, and defence. That is our focus right now. Win one of those and everyone can pipe down.

That we haven’t allows fringe views to float — come up empty handed and those views will plant their roots and it’ll be out of control like Japanese knotweed in your plant beds. Shit, I sound old when I write things like that don’t I? Need to say ‘bro’ more and talk about Clavicular.

Back to it… I’m going to wait on losing my mind because I am an older person who can see the bigger picture here.

Arteta and his team took a gamble on the squad being good enough to handle Southampton. The gamble flunked. That’s now a Berta issue to deal with in the summer. We have too many squad players who are suffering from status drop depression. Players who earn fortunes that are always injured are now realising their bodies don’t work the same as they used to. Young players we had high hopes for now look like they need loans.

But I’m not going to give up on the season or the project because we’ve lost two games with back-up teams back to back.

Saka, Declan, Calafiori, Hincapie, Eze, Gyokeres, Timber, Saliba, and Raya were all missing today… why would anyone read into the result deeper than ‘our back-ups aren’t at the level.’

Sporting Lisbon needs to see a bounce. Another gift of a match up. We have to do better with our first teamers. If we do, no one will dwell on what just happened.

Arteta has finally taken the mature decision. He has prioritised two competitions. He’s protecting his best players for the biggest games. That is the correct move.

Losing to Southampton, never a good look, but if it’s in service of a big trophy, I just don’t f*cking care. Nor should you. But I don’t control your emotions, do I?

Ok, me and Johnny dropped an On The Whistle. Take a look if you want to be a member. x

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