This game followed the pattern of the last dozen or so games, teams either capitalise on our lapses of concentration or they don't, this time they did.
Anyone who has watched recent games will have noticed a pattern emerging, when Saints get everyone behind the ball and protect the defence we don't concede, but the problem is that most of the team don't cross the half way line, if we try to attack then our defence cannot cope with breakaways.
This means that we don't seem to have the confidence to commit men forward knowing that we could get caught out.
The games follow a similar pattern, for most of the game we are tight, but then we are let down by lapses in concentration, then it is just a question of whether the opposition take advantage or not, against Bournemouth and West Brom we gifted them several gilt edged chances and they could not capitalise, likewise Liverpool, some have boasted that they failed to score against us in four games this season, that is true but to be brutally honest that is more to do with the fact that they can't hit a barn door at five paces than the tightness of our defence.
But play teams like Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal and they will punish you and it is no coincidence that in the three games against these teams we have conceded 9 goals and most of these should have been avoided.
This was the case last night against the Gunners, yes we were tight for most of the game, but in the two key moments we got caught napping, our defenders don't track players and they can't seem to read situations, how many times has a player had a free header six yards from goal lately ? the answer is far too many times and that is poor marking.
I have been harking on about this for months now, some seem to think it is not the fault of our central defenders, I'm sorry but it is, at least partly, although I mostly blame the manager for sitting back, doing the same things and getting the same results.
Essentially this team is the one that has been good enough to still be in the top 10, so what is the difference and the answer is the centre of defence, the partnership is 13 games and 20 goals conceded, that is 1.53 goals a game, that is appalling.
Games fall into several categories, the likes of Hull & Sunderland who aren't good enough to score against us, the likes of West Borm, Liverpool and Bournemouth where we get lucky after gifting them chances or Chelsea, Watford, Manchester City and last night Arsenal where they take the chances we give them and lets be blunt we do give them.
Yes it is a broken record that I keep harping on about this, but it is because it is happening week in and week out and now it has drained the confidence out of the team who are afraid to attack as they know that we cannot stop conceding goals.
Our last three seasons have been based on being tight at the back and that has enabled us to build on that and win games, now over the past 13 games we have been the worst defence in the Premier League, why is that ?
The manager has to take his share of the blame, he has kept doing the same things and has got the same results, he could have played Martin Caceres in the centre, he could have played Ryan Bertrand, he could have played Florin Gardos, he could even have played Cuco Martina, but he hasn't so it should be no surprise that again we have seen our defence carved apart and a game that we really should have had something out of has gone away from us.
Ironically we had the best chances against Arsenal and let us not forget they are still a team in the top five of the Premier League, this was not a bad performance overall, it was just shoddy defending again.
Good teams are built with a strong spine, take away any part of the spine and it is weak, that is our problem.
The overall answer is that this is a season where we have really underperformed, I said that the manager should be judged on his season not isolated games like Sparta Prague etc, the last 13 games has seen only 15 points gained, that is little better than relegation form, the manager has stuck rigidly with what he has seen as his best side during that time, the rotation policy has gone out of the window, yet results are now worse, performances are worse and the manager seems to be unable to change things or at least unwilling to change things and hope that things get better.
It is hard now to see how Claude Puel can come back from this, he has lost part of the dressing room we have seen public spats from the likes of Dusan Tadic and Shane Long, I would suspect that Jordy Clasie is far from happy at being out in the cold, the fans are firmly against him now and with season ticket renewals due up on Sunday the club will be looking at those who have not renewed, but more worrying is the manager's performance himself, it is not manifesting itself on the pitch, he is not dealing with issues and that is the most worrying.
On a plus side we are still 10th take 4 points out of our last 3 games and we should be able to stay 10th, Saints have to beat Middlesbrough on Saturday, if they don't then I dread to think of the consequences.