At times like these, as Mikel Arteta, gropes desperately for answers, the Arsenal manager must be grateful for small mercies. At least there were no supporters present to witness this latest angst-ridden performance, which was scarred by another red card. At least his team scored for only the third time in nine Premier League games. At least they did not lose.
Make no mistake, Arsenal got away with one here. They were loose and pedestrian for the opening 30 minutes, when they trailed to a goal from Theo Walcott, who later said that he could feel the fear in his old team.
The good news for Arsenal was that they found a way back, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang equalising with his third league goal of the season. How he needed that. Arteta was keen to talk up the resilience and character that he saw in his players.
But then came another lurch towards the self-destruct button, another act of indiscipline. Gabriel had just been booked for kicking the ball away when he allowed Walcott to roll away from him in the 62nd minute on half-way. He reacted by dragging him back – the lack of situational awareness was staggering – and, one man down for the third time in five matches, Arsenal were left to hang on.
Southampton played the more controlled football and they pushed for the winner although, almost implausibly, Arsenal almost stole it themselves when Rob Holding’s stoppage-time header from Bukayo Saka’s free-kick hit the woodwork.
That did not reflect the balance of play and Arteta knew he had to be happy with the point, although once again there was plenty to vex him – not least Gabriel’s dismissal. “We shot ourselves in the foot,” Arteta said. “It’s very difficult to compete in this league with 10 men.”
The assurance at the outset belonged to Southampton. Arteta had dropped Willian and Alexandre Lacazette and switched to 3-4-3 but Ralph Hasenhütl has his system and his players know their roles. The visitors were comfortable in possession, helped by the lack of a cohesive Arsenal press; they worked their one-touch stuff and they could sense the tentativeness in their opponents.
Southampton’s goal summed up Arsenal’s fragility. All it took to prise them apart was a Jannik Vestergaard pass up from the back, a missed tackle and then another pass. The hapless Gabriel missed the tackle on Che Adams and, when the Southampton striker looked up, the ball was on for Walcott. He was in yards of space and finished with a cool dink.
Arsenal’s lack of intensity for the opening half hour was extraordinary. Then again, this is what rock bottom levels of confidence look like. Southampton strutted. Where were the challenges to knock them from their stride?
Arsenal pockmarked their play with errors, such as the one that Dani Ceballos made on 37 minutes when he spun inside the area and threw himself to the ground in the vague proximity of Jan Bednarek. He was four yards out. Why not just shoot?
Arteta’s team did chisel out a few openings towards the end of the half, with the returning Nicolas Pépé seeing one shot blocked by Vestergaard and scuffing another at Alex McCarthy. The Southampton goalkeeper also saved when Bednarek diverted a Saka cross towards his own goal. In a parallel universe, the half-time whistle was the prompt for boos.
Saka looked the most likely to make something happen for Arsenal and he did so in the 52nd minute, wriggling away from three challenges and finding Eddie Ntekiah, whose touch ushered in Aubameyang.
At last, Arsenal had a bit of momentum but Gabriel soon checked it. Southampton went for the kill, with the substitute, Nathan Redmond, hitting the crossbar and blasting another shot just wide. Hasenhütl argued that another substitute, Moussa Djenepo, ought to have had a penalty following a body check. Arsenal have won just once in nine but at least this was something. It was high-flying Southampton who departed with the regrets.
