Arsene Wenger was involved in a tunnel brawl with Southampton manager Ronald Koeman as the Gunners eventually lost further ground in their title bid after suffering a goalless stalemate with Southampton last night.
The Arsenal boss apparently confronted match referee Lee Mason and even shouted: “It’s always the same with you,” following a frustrating goalless draw at the Emirates.
But Koeman then intervened and said to Wenger: “No, it’s always the same with YOU!” – a reference to the French manager’s comments during Arsenal’s shock 4-0 defeat at St. Mary’s on Boxing Day.
And Koeman further said: “Your team had ten chances to score and couldn’t take any of them so why have a go at the officials?”
The Gunners have now gone four matches without a victory in the Premier League, they have also drawn a blank in their last three outings and missed a hand full of chances against Southampton.
Wenger was literally fuming at his boys’ failure to destroy the Saints and after the match complained: “Our finishing is very bad at the moment and we can’t be happy with that.
“We missed many chances that we usually take. We had 22 shots on target tonight but now we have gone three games without a goal and that is what is maximum frustrating.
“Their goalkeeper was brilliant tonight but it was one-way traffic in the second-half and we still couldn’t score. We didn’t make enough of our set-pieces and the quality of finishing was poor.
He went on saying,“If you know of any world-class striker who could strengthen our team, you should have told me before the transfer window closed. But they don’t walk in the street and say ‘please come and sign me’.
“They are all under contracts at big clubs and we already have many players here who have shown they can score goals.
“But we know that Leicester, Manchester City and Tottenham have all won tonight and it is a dream to think we can catch the others if we do not win our games. The French boss further said.
“We have had a stuttering start to 2016 and we have a difficult programme coming up, especially away from home, so we have to respond quickly.”
Wenger was also frustrated after seeing his team slip five points behind league leaders Leicester as they endured a fourth game without a win. Although Arsenal dominated the possession, just over a month after their 4-0 humiliation on the south coast. But the Gunners found Fraser Forster and his rock solid defence in the obdurate mood, as they remain the only team in the top six not to win on Tuesday night’s Premier League action.
Meanwhile, Koeman revealed his squad owed their point to the exceptional performance of goalkeeper Fraser Forster, who displayed a string of amazing saves to keep Arsenal at bay.
The English stopper, just recently returning to action from a serious knee injury last March, has kept a clean sheet in all four appearances since. He denied Mesut Ozil two times before the break and was at also his best to nullify any threat from Olivier Giroud and Alexis Sanchez in the second half.
Koeman told the reporters: “Not in a year and half of managing Southampton have I seen a team create as many chances against us as Arsenal did tonight.
“We needed to be lucky and to have a goalkeeper who saved everything. And that is what happened.
“We didn’t play well but we fought with unbelievable spirit. It wasn’t good enough but we had a goalkeeper who was magic tonight.”