Arsenal 0-0 Southampton: Arsene Wenger blasts the Gunners’ shoddy finishing as their Premier League title hopes suffer another blow
Arsenal 0, Southampton 0
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger blasted his team's impotence in front of goal after a fourth successive Premier League game without a win further undermined their title challenge.
The Gunners mustered 18 shots, including 12 on target, but found Fraser Forster in forbidding mood on the rare occasions they stretched the Southampton and England goalkeeper.
A third league game in a row without a goal saw Wenger's men slip to fourth, behind north London rivals Tottenham, as all of their fellow title challengers won on Tuesday night.
"It is frustrating because we have produced quite a good performance especially in the second half, when we created 10 goal chances, and at the end we come out with no goal," he said.
"The performance we wanted to produce was there but we cannot be happy with the way we finished our chances. That is what is most disappointing.
"Some players missed some chances that usually they take. Our finishing is very bad at the moment. We started slowly but in the first half Ozil had two good chances. We didn't make enough of our set pieces."
Southampton boss Ronald Koeman, whose team climbed to seventh, praised a "magic" performance from Forster, who has not conceded in four games since his return from injury.
"In one and a half years managing Southampton no team has created the opportunities Arsenal did today," he said. "You have to be lucky but you also need a goalkeeper who saves everything."
Forster kept out two nonchalant Ozil efforts in a tepid first half but rose to the task when Arsenal bombarded the Saints goal in the second half.
The former Celtic stopper tipped over striker Olivier Giroud's shot, thwarted substitute Theo Walcott with a double save and denied a header and later a shot from Alexis Sanchez.
Gunners defender Laurent Koscielny and Giroud headed wastefully over while Sanchez saw a poked shot through a crowded box cleared off the line by James Ward-Prowse.