As regular readers of this column will know, I rarely say anything at all about referees... however, I'm going to be talking about this one in the course of your next 5 minutes. Because there's little doubt that he had a massive influence on this game.
Look, we've come out of it with a draw. In many ways, that's disappointing, as Arsenal were well on top throughout the bulk of the first half and should have gone in at half time with a bigger lead than a mere 1-0. A combination of complacency regarding the level of opposition, profligacy in front of goal, and some mystifying decisions from Mr Jones combined to mean that Arsenal's superiority wasn't truly reflected in the scoreline.
On the other hand, Arsenal lost this corresponding match last season. So perhaps we'll look upon it as something more valuable than it currently feels later in the season. So let's look at the main threads:
Complacency and Profligacy
Granit Xhaka tested Bazunu from a tight angle very early on, and then Odegaard missed an excellent opportunity for Arsenal to take the lead, scuffing his shot (he continually gets into good scoring positions, but sometimes opts to pass; and he needs to up his finishing skills to take advantage of more of these situations), before Xhaka's astonishing right foot volley gave them an 11th minute lead.
Gabriel Jesus - possibly suffering from a temporary loss of confidence having not scored for a while - twisted and turned following a Ward-Prowse error but only hit the side netting soon after. Martinelli drove into the heart of the Southampton defence and got a shot away, only to be defied by a deflection with the goalkeeper going the wrong way. And Bazunu beat away a Jesus volley following another Southampton error forced by Arsenal's high press.
In the second half Jesus had a chance to put the game to bed before the equaliser. But his run towards goal - following yet another press-induced Southampton error - lacked conviction and his shot was weak and comfortably blocked. Sub Nketiah had a late opportunity, but by then Arsenal had essentially lost most of their control.
Fatigue
Again, I'm not making excuses. But Arsenal had less of a rest than Southampton, having played on Thursday. The squad isn't quite big enough, as we know, to enable Arteta to rotate as much as he'd like. And once again Arsenal faded in the second half. It's become a bit of theme recently, and frankly nothing's going to change for the rest of the season. With the big World Cup break looming, I think that it would be prudent for Edu to line up two or three January reinforcements; one in central midfield, one wide man, and an alternative forward.
Refereeing
I'm sorry, but this must be done. Robert Jones is one of the new influx of referees following the mass close season retirements amongst the old guard. And he is, frankly, incompetent. How he got this gig is beyond me.
Arsenal have suffered from his work once already this season, when against Aston Villa he allowed Tyrone Mings to get away with this...
... he allowed Villa's equaliser despite a clear foul on Ramsdale...
... and he also failed to punish serial offending by the opposition midfield. So I guess that what transpired on Sunday should have come as no surprise.
Here, he failed to punish an early Caleta-Car foul on Jesus, and thus set the same tone as he had against Villa. Seeing that they could get away with it, Caleta-Car and Lyanco felt that they had carte blanche to man handle Gabriel Jesus throughout, and they dished out similar treatment to Saka and others.
I won't list all the offences (these images do the job for me), but I reckon that on another day Arsenal could have had two penalties, and Southampton 5 yellow cards plus two red.
...whilst the booking of Saka for simulation (there was definite contact) merely added insult to injury...
For the first of the penalties, Jesus reported that the referee had told him that if he'd have gone down earlier he may have given the penalty. So Jesus is punished for trying to stay on his feet? The world has gone mad!
I know that referees have been told to let the game flow a bit more this season, but a foul is a foul, and when I last looked rabbit punches in the back, attempted head butts, and throat grabbing were not permitted on a football pitch. And I can only assume that the VAR was having a long nap instead of paying any attention to what we were watching.
Anyway, what's the point of moaning? However, if we ever see that the incompetent Jones is awarded another Arsenal game (he should go back to Sunday League at Hackney Marshes if you ask me) then we'll know what to expect.
Anyway, we move on. To what I hope is massive rotation on Thursday evening in Eindhoven, and then what ought to be a straightforward task at home to Nottingham Forest on Sunday. How the latter beat Liverpool on Saturday I really don't know - all I can say that it was equally improbable and hysterically funny at the same time. And Spurs lost again.
Still top. COYG!
One final thing. You may have noticed that Southampton brought on Samuel Edozie as a late sub. He was signed from Manchester City in the summer, and he's only 18. However, I understand that he's nowhere near as good as his brother Fandab. Think about it...
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