Earlier today Southampton headed to the Emirates Stadium to face Arsenal and everybody hoped for a similarly surprising result given the return Premier League fixture on home soil and how we battled to all three points on the day.
Sadly that wasn’t to be and our struggles continued with a 2-0 defeat and the hosts had the game tied up inside of the opening 20 minutes. There were some positives as we had some good chances in the game and we did improve in the second period, but it just wasn’t enough to get ourselves back into the game.
It’s a fourth straight league game without a win for manager Ralph Hasenhuttl and we remain in the relegation places a point adrift of Cardiff City.
Speaking to the BBC following the fulltime whistle, a disappointed Hasenhuttl explained.
“The key moment was the chance for 1-0 and then they were up. They were much better and played very simple and we had problems to defend, which is why we switched and changed the shape. We had a few chances but Arsenal also did too. If you are 2-0 here then its easy for Arsenal. The good thing is we didn’t collapse today. We didn’t, but we deserved to lose today. For us every game is big. The next weeks are very tough for us and against Fulham we need to have a win and recover very well now for Wednesday and do everything to win this game.”
All eyes to midweek and Wednesday’s key clash with Fulham as that needs to be a victory against Claudio Ranieri’s struggling side or it will begin to look bleak.