Making the Grade: Match Day 4, Arsenal vs. Southampton
Defence
It’s becoming a pretty familiar pattern: at the back line, the team is a tale of two defences. On one hand, Virgil Van Dijk and newly-returned Ryan Bertrand run roughshod over Arsenal attacks and keep Mesut Ozil in their pocket all game. On the other, Euro 2016 heroes Jose Fonte and Cédric play themselves into trouble as often as they play out of it.
Keeping the dynamic attacking corps of Ozil, Perez, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott silent for 90 minutes is no mean feat for the best of sides. For that, the back four deserve praise and get plenty from this writer.
But by the opposite token, a blunder in corner-marking left Laurent Koscielny wide open for Pele-like acrobatics to put the Gunners level. Any time you’re letting a centre-half score a flair shot in your box, you’re doing something wrong.
Overall, could be worse, but could also be a lot better.
Standout: Ryan Bertrand
Bertrand didn’t disappoint in his first start of the season. Kept Mesut Ozil tied up all game and silenced any lingering doubts about his knees impacting his game. Not a bad way to remind everyone you’re still here.
Snoozer: Cédric, Jose Fonte (tie)
I honestly don’t get it. These two helped Portugal win Euro 2016 on the back of a very pragmatic, defensive gameplay. Ipso facto, they should be two of Europe’s better defenders. Yet it seems like every game they’re good for 1-2 minor errors that make their life much harder than it needs to be.
This week we saw them foul an Arsenal player who’d been sealed off into a corner, and nearly get sealed out while tracking back to retrieve a long ball. That’s not Premiership-level defending, plain and simple.
Readers should not that I’m not counting Fonte’s penalty in the consideration here. When the player you’re 50/50ing with turns to ask who drew the penalty, ’nuff said.