Arsenal broke a two year old record in the Barclays Premier
League on Saturday by completing 741 passes in their 3-0 victory at Aston
Villa.
On Tuesday night at the Emirates it was the turn of Arsene
Wenger’s men to be passed off the park.
Beaten at their own game by Southampton, how about that?
What a lesson this was.
Southampton dished it out, deserving winners after a
towering performance from Morgan Schneiderlin in the centre of their midfield.
Goodness knows how Saints clung on to him in the summer when
Tottenham were trying to take him to White Hart Lane, but they did.
He, like many others in Ronald Koeman’s team, played like a
man possessed.
Meet a Southampton supporter in the street today and they
will stop you in your tracks to tell you about the moment time stood still when
Nathaniel Clyne took a touch 30 yards out.
It came in the 39th minute, when the score was one-apiece
and Arsenal’s defence failed to chase down the Southampton defender when they
cleared a corner.
Clyne took a touch and unleashed a thunderbolt, smashing it
beyond David Ospina, making his debut in Arsenal’s goal, to put Southampton
ahead. It has gone down in Southampton folklore.
Goodness knows how Clyne is consistently overlooked by
England manager Roy Hodgson, but this rocket can only add to the Ready Brek
glow around the Southampton right-back.
Koeman’s team exposed Arsenal, playing on their fragile
confidence and scarring them with with this thrilling victory.
Even when they fell behind to Alexis Sanchez’s stunning
free-kick in the 14th minute, Southampton didn’t panic. What a quality to have.
Sanchez, pulling his shorts up so tight they looked like a
pair of budgie smugglers before he took the free-kick, pinged it off his right
book and into the top corner. Forster didn’t move.
.jpeg)
No comments:
Post a Comment