Arsenal’s treble dream is over.
The pitch at Southampton’s St Mary’s Stadium was peppered with yellow balloons during this FA Cup quarter-final but it was the Premier League leaders who saw their bubble burst.
A first half marked by a string of Arsenal defensive errors left the visitors 1-0 down at half-time thanks to Ross Stewart’s strike before substitute Viktor Gyokeres pulled his side level.
But it was Championship side Southampton who struck next, with Shea Charles scoring an 85th-minute winner to dump Arsenal out of the FA Cup and join Chelsea, Manchester City and either West Ham United or Leeds United in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium later this month.
Art de Roché analyses the key talking points…
Do Arsenal need to ‘manage’ games better?
Even with Southampton in the Championship, Arsenal made a trip to St Mary’s harder work than most would have expected once again.
This was their 15th visit to the stadium since 2012. They have now lost six of those matches, winning five and drawing the other four.
Mikel Arteta’s players can only have themselves to blame as the errors in possession that littered their performance turned this into an end-to-end FA Cup tie similar to their trip to Mansfield Town in the previous round.
The difference on this occasion was that they were playing a team on a 15-match unbeaten run (now 16) who were full of confidence.
With such a quick turnaround before facing Sporting CP in the Champions League quarter-finals, Arsenal cannot let this be the start of a spiral that has often come at the end of recent seasons.
Arsenal react to conceding the first goal against Southampton (Catherine Ivill/AMA/Getty Images)
There will also be concern over Gabriel being forced off with what looked like a left knee injury on 74 minutes.
The 28-year-old withdrew from Brazil’s March international squad due to discomfort with his knee, so may not have been 100 per cent fit, but Piero Hincapie and Jurrien Timber being unavailable left Arteta with little room to truly rotate.
Madueke and Martin Zubimendi returned to action, but Timber, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trossard and Eberechi Eze were left out of the matchday squad.
Out of the FA Cup, Arsenal will now have an extra few days of recovery at the end of April as their home match against Newcastle United will not need to be rescheduled.
Do Arsenal need to ‘manage’ games better?
Mikel Arteta making multiple changes at once is not as rare a sight as it once was, but his triple change on the hour mark at St Mary’s was absolutely necessary.
Gabriel Jesus was not offering enough up front, Martin Odegaard started brightly but was making his first appearance in six weeks and Myles Lewis-Skelly was becoming too lax in possession.
In his pre-match press conference, the Arsenal manager said: “How the game can shift from the first and second half, that’s something that we need to manage better.” Viktor Gyokeres, Noni Madueke and Riccardo Calafiori all helped his team do that almost instantly after coming on around the hour mark — even if it was not to last.
A typical driving Madueke dribble into the box did not result in anything, but injected intensity to Arsenal’s play that had not been present previously. As for the goal, Kai Havertz ghosting in behind (alongside Calafiori) to then find Gyokeres was the latest example of how that combination can catch opposition defences out.
Viktor Gyokeres brings Arsenal level (Warren Little/Getty Images)
All three of his assists this season have been for the Swede, so Arteta having the ability to change things in-game could be crucial in the run-in.
Ultimately, Arsenal failed to build on the momentum from their goal. That gave Southampton encouragement, and that proved costly late on.
Why was there so much defensive indecision?
Arsenal may have had more of the ball in the first half, but warning signs of the threat Southampton carried on the break came very early on.
Tonda Eckert’s side mustered two counter-attacks inside the first three minutes after Arsenal players lost possession in midfield, only for Gabriel to intervene on both occasions.
The Brazilian himself should have been bolder when dealing with a long ball from Daniel Peretz, as his glance on halfway gifted Leo Scienza with a golden chance to score had it not been for Cristhian Mosquera’s recovery.
Cheap losses of possession, and defensive indecision, were dangerous themes throughout the first half that cost them on 35 minutes.
Martin Odegaard’s backheel was a gift for Scienza to kickstart another Southampton breakaway while Ben White cemented five minutes to forget by misjudging the flight of the cross over to Ross Stewart.
Ross Stewart capitalised on an error from Ben White to open the scoring for Southampton (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
In the minutes before, he had played Kepa Arrizabalaga — who retained his place following Arsenal’s defeat in the Carabao Cup final against Manchester City — into danger with a blind backpass. After the goal, he conceded a cheap foul that allowed Southampton to build more pressure.
The timing of Stewart’s opener was unfortunate. Odegaard had been probing before the moment that gave Southampton that opportunity, but the rustiness on display when he skewed a shot minutes before seemed characteristic of the collective throughout the first half.
What did Mikel Arteta say?
The Arsenal manager said in his post-match press conference: “(I’m) really disappointed in the manner that we lost the opportunity to get back to Wembley. I think the game had many, many, many periods of dominance from our side when we generated chances, situations. We didn’t capitalise on that enough.
“And then when you defend in and around the box and play in the manner that we did today, you’re going to put yourself in a really difficult position, and they didn’t capitalise on that, and that’s the reason why we’re out.
“I love my players. We haven’t done well for nine months. I’m not going to criticise them because we lost a game here in the manner that they tried. And the way they are putting their bodies through everything. Some of them probably didn’t even have to be here today. I’m not going to do that. I’m going to defend them more than ever.
“Someone has to take responsibility. That’s me and 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’re going to say difficulty when we’re going to play the Champions League quarter-finals and the run-up for the league. If this is a difficult period, I believe there are many other ones that are much more difficult. So stand up, make yourself comfortable and deliver like we’ve been doing all season.”
What next for Arsenal?
Tuesday, April 7: Sporting CP (Away), Champions League quarter-final first leg, 8pm UK, 3pm ET
