“We go again” is Mikel Arteta’s message after the desperate disappointment of a dramatic defeat for Arsenal at Southampton

Southampton (1) 2 v Arsenal (0) 1

By Kaz Mochlinski at St. Mary’s Stadium

FA Cup

Sixth Round

Talking Points

“We go again.” That was Mikel Arteta’s message to the Arsenal fans who waited outside St. Mary’s Stadium for the team despite the desperate disappointment of a dramatic defeat by Southampton in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.

It seemed to be a meaningful moment of much-needed mutual support, as the Arsenal manager took the time to stop and speak with a large group of Gunners aficionados before the squad and staff departed from the ground.

With good grace accepting the joyful taunts of the happy home crowd, Arteta also ignored the galeforce winds and drizzle to stand and talk with the Arsenal contingent who had remained behind, looking to lift spirits for the rest of the season to come.

The Gunners are still competing for the Premier League and the Champions League, and Arteta revealed that his players had addressed this behind closed doors at Southampton immediately after the final whistle.

However, he declined to divulge exactly what was said, understandably preferring to reiterate that the details of discussions inside the dressing room should stay in the dressing room and be kept confidential.

Conversely, Arteta wanted it to be known and appreciated publicly that some of his side against Southampton would not have been involved ideally due to fitness issues, being hampered to a varying extent by injuries or playing in pain.

“I love my players” emphasised Arteta afterwards. “What they have done for nine months, the way they are putting their bodies through everything, some of them probably didn’t even have to be here today.

“I’m going to defend them more than ever. If someone has to take responsibility, it’s me. We have the most beautiful period of the season ahead of us, and now is the moment. In the season, you always have moments - normally two or three.

“This is the first moment that we have with a certain level of difficulty. We say difficulty, when we are going into the quarter-finals of the Champions League and the run-in for the league.

“It’s a difficult period. I believe that it is. But there are many others that are even more difficult. So, stand up, make yourself accountable, and deliver like we have been doing all season.”

The difference now is having been beaten twice in two games, separated by two weeks, halving the chances of silverware this season, from pursuing a quadruple to only focusing on a double. Is this just an aberration, or a developing crisis?

These have been Arsenal’s biggest matches of this campaign to date, the Football League Cup Final and a FA Cup quarter-final. Both were lost in a very frustrating manner, with below-average performances, well short of their usual high standards.

After succumbing at Wembley to Manchester City, their rivals for the Premier League title, the Gunners have subsequently fallen to lower league opposition, which does not occur often, and has not happened for the previous three seasons.

Arteta made seven changes to the starting line-up between the two outings, with several of them being of course enforced, amid much debate after 11 Arsenal players were withdrawn from representing their countries during the international break.

In addition to Mikel Merino’s long-term absence, six of those 11 were also missing from the trip to Southampton, in Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze, Leandro Trossard, Jurriën Timber and Piero Hincapié, all of them regular first team starters.

Three others were on the substitutes’ bench at St. Mary’s and were sent on in the second half, namely William Saliba, Martín Zubimendi and Noni Madueke. Just two started against the Saints, those being Martin Ødegaard and Gabriel Magalhães.

However, Ødegaard and Gabriel have each lately been nursing knee injuries, and neither finished the encounter, unsurprisingly for the Norwegian, as the club captain had not played in six weeks and it was his first start for two and a half months.

Ødegaard and Gabriel were Arsenal’s only first choice players in the XI at Southampton, which could have partly explained the disjointed display, if seven of the side had not also started together in the previous round against Mansfield Town.

Two consecutive matches in the FA Cup away to teams from leagues below the Gunners, against home clubs wearing yellow and blue colours, producing two identical scorelines of 2-1, but one being a memorable win and the other an agonising loss.

Fittingly, Southampton ended up being able to celebrate 25 years of St. Mary’s with one of their best ever results at the stadium, to which they moved in 2001, and they will now be returning to Wembley on the 50th anniversary of their FA Cup victory in 1976.

The Saints may have derived some extra inspiration in the competition this season from playing in their special-edition commemorative yellow and blue kit, which is a replica of the one that was used half a century ago in the triumphant final.

Southampton have lost just once in the Championship since entering this year’s FA Cup in the third round, and on this very special Saturday night they extended their current unbeaten run to 15 games without the presence of two key players.

Jack Stephens and Flynn Downes were prevented from participating, due to an ankle injury and suspension respectively. So their impressive head coach, Tonda Eckert, could take even greater credit in the circumstances for outplaying Arteta.

It stopped Arsenal from achieving a very unique accomplishment, as Southampton’s winning goal five minutes from full-time denied the visitors an extremely rare coastal clean sweep, after three earlier successes on England’s southern shoreline this season.

Having already defeated Brighton & Hove Albion and Bournemouth in the Premier League, plus Portsmouth in the FA Cup, the Gunners could not quite complete an unusual set of wins at each of the four clubs on the south coast in one campaign.

In the aftermath, Arteta was rightly remaining rather more focused on the fixtures coming up in the league and in Europe, and specifically on having to quickly start thinking about how to lift his squad to continue their pursuit of potential glory.

He outlined his approach to this as being quite simple: “Giving clarity, even more conviction now, and trusting the players; believing in what we are doing, continuing to do that, with little tweaks that every game demands.

“But especially maintaining the spirit, the attitude and the energy, at the highest possible level, because that is critical to perform at the level that we need to win matches.”

If Arsenal can avoid the latest setbacks having a lingering effect, securing just one major trophy this season would still be deemed massively successful, and they retain the opportunity to do that. It is as Arteta said before leaving Southampton behind.

“We go again.”