Mikel Arteta lamented his Arsenal side’s lacklustre defending, particularly when dealing with long balls, as they suffered a shock 1-2 loss to Southampton in the FA Cup quarter-finals on Saturday. The Gunners fell behind to Ross Stewart’s 35th-minute goal before Viktor Gyokeres came off the bench to net the equaliser (68th min).
Arsenal were well below their best in the absence of the injured Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka, while defender Gabriel Magalhaes also limped off with a knee injury. They were punished in the 85th minute when Shea Charles steered in Southampton’s winner from the edge of the area.
Mikel Arteta
“We conceded the first goal in a very unusual way for us, the second one was from direct play as well. We didn’t manage the long balls well enough. We just let the ball through us. Difficult to explain, but credit to them,” said Arteta.
The Spanish coach also admitted they weren’t sharp enough in the final third. “We had so much dominance around the box. We had two massive chances and needed to capitalise on that. But if you make defensive errors, it’s very difficult to be in the semi-final,” he added.
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