How Hassenhuttl crucified Arsenal, despite Mkhitaryan's new role, as Southampton ended Emery's unbeaten run

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In an entertaining game of football, Southampton scored a huge win over Arsenal, winning 3-2.

This was Saints’ first win under new manager Ralph Hassenhuttl and will go down brilliantly, coming in his first home game. What did we learn?

1. Arsenal’s defensive needs are clear

Arsenal seriously started a Premier League game with a back three consisting of 33-year-old Laurent Koscielny (who is just returning from injury) and 34-year-old Stephan Lichtsteiner (who is a full-back) as well as 26-year-old midfield maestro Granit Xhaka. No, seriously. And Lichtsteiner even left the field with an injury midway through the second half.

This can’t wait until the summer, this is something that needs to be addressed in two weeks when the January transfer window opens for business. Arsenal need to hit the market and get themselves a solid, Premier League quality centre-back. They need that extra body, a reliable figure that means they don’t have to turn to full-backs and midfielders so quickly.

Moreover, Sead Kolasinac is a Sherman Tank made out of crate paper. He’s a monster when fit but gets injured so often that the club often has to rely upon 32-year-old Nacho Monreal. Now, Monreal is good and can be effective, but he’s not someone you should be relying on to build your defence. So a left-back is critical too.

2. Ings can only get better

Danny Ings’ guided header to give Arsenal the lead was good, for sure, but the way he leapt and looped the ball up and over Bernd Leno for the Saints’ second was downright delightful! Ings now has seven goals in 13 games this season. There have only been three seasons in his career where he has done better; one of those was in League One and the other (his best-ever scoring season of 26) was in the Championship. So with less than half the season done, Ings is just five goals away from his best ever goal return in the top flight. That’s impressive.

Ings was plagued by injury on Merseyside, but Southampton will be hoping and praying he can stay fit for them because his ability to lead the press as well as be a goalscoring target for Southampton’s play is the key to unlocking the side’s potential under Ralph Hassenhuttl. We saw against Arsenal that for 70 minutes he ran the channels, pressed defenders and most importantly, scored goals.

3. Mkhitaryan in the middle

The big question so far this season amongst fans seems to be Mesut Ozil or Aaron Ramsey? The big divide is over whether the German’s languid creative excellence is a better fit for the side than Ramsey’s frenetic goalscoring and difference-making antics.  Naturally, Unai Emery’s answer seems to have been “why not both?”

Well, not both as in play both men at the same time. But both as in play Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who is an incredible combination of both Ozil and Ramsey’s skill-set. Not quite as masterful as Ozil nor as relentless as Ramsey, but he rides a fine line between the two.

Against Southampton we saw some creativity but mostly this was an exhibition of goalscoring and pressing. Mkhitaryan ghosted from deeper positions constantly evading Saints players, headed Arsenal level with a delightful effort. He gave the Gunners the lead after letting fly from outside the box and being blessed with a lucky deflection. He also intercepted more passes than anyone else on the pitch.

4. Emery’s magic touch

Everyone goes on about Manchester United but Arsenal are the real Second Half FC. They’ve not led in a single game at half-time, yet they’re up there in fifth place because they recover so well in the second half, particularly when Unai Emery makes changes.

Today he brought on Alexandre Lacazette for Héctor Bellerin and switched to a back four. Immediately the Gunners looked more comfortable in the shape and were better able to work around Southampton’s defence.

It was the pressing of sub Lacazette and Matteo Guendouzi that recovered the ball and set it up for Arsenal’s second goal (Lacazette got the assist). Such is Emery’s consistent excellence in this field that one can only figure that Arsenal would have prevailed had they not been forced to burn their third substitution on replacing the injured Lichtsteiner.

5. Hassenhuttl crucifies Arsenal

Ralph Hassenhuttl hasn’t been Saints manager long. The two games he had previously taken charge of were away defeats to Spurs and Cardiff. Things were improving but everyone was aware that this was going to be a process; well, we saw great evidence of where that process could lead against Arsenal.

Lacking the midfielders to play exactly the way his RB Leipzig side did, Saints adopted an interesting approach against Arsenal: get it wide and cross it in. Perhaps sensing that Arsenal’s ramshackle defence wouldn’t be able to handle the pressure, or maybe Hassenhuttl knew something about Bernd Leno from their Bundesliga days.

Whatever the reasoning, it proved incredibly effective. First a beautiful curling shot from Matt Targett curved around Laurent Koscielny and was guided intro the net by Ings. The former Liverpool striker said that the club had been working on crosses “all week” and that was obvious. Nathan Redmond clipped a gentle effort into the Arsenal box from the right, again over Koscielny, and Ings almost chipped the ball with his head into the corner.

And finally, with just five minutes left in the game, sub Shane Long was sent away down the right flank. He took a touch and then lifted a gorgeous cross over to sub Charlie Austin. The ball was slow enough to tempt Bernd Leno out of goal, but it curved enough to ensure that the German didn’t really have a chance. So the ball fell kindly for Austin to score his fifth goal in his fifth Premier League game against Arsenal. A run of form that only Raheem Sterling vs. Bournemouth (6 in 6) can outdo. Arsenal’s ultimate nemesis exposes their old weakness thanks to Southampton’s new style.

The post Hassenhuttl crucifies Arsenal: Five things learned as Southampton end Emery’s unbeaten run appeared first on Squawka News.



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