The Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl felt his team were embarassed by by the high-flying Chelsea side last week, and has warned the Gunners that they will be making sure that they don’t make the same mistakes when Arsenal come down to the South Coast this weekend.
The Saints were beaten 6-0 by Thomas Tuchel’s side which means they have gained just one point from their last six EPL matches, but they are not embroiled in the relegation struggle this season and can relax while Hassenhuttl searches for solutions to their defensive problems.
Obviously Southampton’s defeat will dent their confidence, but the Austrian coach believes that it may just be the wake.up call they needed to get their tactics back to normal. He told Hampshire Live: “No, it doesn’t give confidence,”
“It rings the alarm and this is what we need to see. It is no coincidence that the last clean sheet we had was against Norwich and this was a few weeks ago.
“We have to get back to a better way of defending, maybe if it is not in a high pressing way because we are not so convinced about this at the moment, it is on us, on me, to find the right decisions for this. And you can be sure that next week [against Arsenal] you will see a team defending better, this is for sure.”
Like against Brighton, Arsenal will be very hot favourites on paper to get back to winning ways, but with the Gunners also in a difficult place after successive defeats, Southampton could not be given a better game to try and get their season back on track.
Yes, we should still be favourites, but would you be surprised if the Saints gave us a shock on Saturday?
Darren N.
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Video – Mikel Arteta post-Brighton “It’s time to criticise ourselves”
Spurs v Arsenal. Arteta v Conte. The two NLD rivals going hammer ad tongs down the straight. It’s a heady brew. Most of the Arsenal players are far more talented than Arteta ever was but the gaffer had a huge heart, was loyal to the bone and mentally tough. He is trying to instill those same qualities into his young squad. Against Southampton we are going to find out if our Manager can motivate and whether the team has the wherewithall to get back into the top 4 race. We need the never say die attiude of the ’89 squad. A season defining game for everyone at Arsenal for sure…
The Southampton match will tell us something about the manager and squad.
1. Can Arteta motivate the players?
2. Can he tactically adjust and overcome the injuries?
3. Will the players fight from the first whistle?
4. Can they show the same intensity in the first 85 minutes that they showed in the last 10 minutes against Brighton?
All is not lost yet, but they have made things more difficult for themselves. Gone from a position of strength with 2 games in hand to now looking for others to do us favors in the top 4 race.
They worked hard to hold 4th, so the excuses of inexperienced players or coach simply won’t work. It didn’t hold them back from reaching 4th, so it shouldn’t be an excuse for why they have fallen off.
What I saw last few matches was a pedestrian approach from our players. I think they bought into their own hype. I won’t blame Arteta much if I analyze the game against Brighton. The zeal that our very players showed after 85 mins is how they should have been all game. Manager can’t teach zeal. It’s what players have to muster.
What normally happens after a team gets hammered at home is that they usual defend deep, which is what I expect Southampton to do this weekend. We definitely need to move the ball quicker from the back, therefore our midfielders and attackers need to move about more instead of acting like a tailors dummy.
How on earth can anyone think we will be favourites against Southampton? We aren’t favourites to beat anyone currently!
Sadly,I have to agree.