Saints put in a fighting display marred by individual errors that gifted the Gunner two goals in the first 16 minutes, but this season will not be defined by this defeat, but what we do in the final 11 games.

As I predicted in the preview Angus Gunn came back in to the side, but the talk pre match was more about who didn't come back in with Yoshida again consigned to the bench.

Saints made a bright start at The Emirates, they could have easily have gone in front when Nathan Redmond was put through and cut back to force a fine save from Leno, but moments later Saints were behind with slack defending again the cause.

It was a carbon copy situation 10 minutes later when Matt Targett drew a good save from the Arsenal keeper and moments later the Gunners scored after Jack Stephens tried to be too clever and put his keeper in trouble with a poor back pass.

Some Saints supporters are in meltdown at this defeat, but a look at Arsenal's home record going into this fixture showed 10 wins, to draws and only a single defeat, only the top two have better, this season will not be defined by a defeat at the Emirates but what we do next.

We all know what the problem is, I have been saying it for over two years now and until recently have been accused of having something against both Jack Stephens and Yoshida, that is not the case, the only thing I have against either is their tendency to concede goals with sloppy defending and this was the case for Stephens yesterday and it was no surprise he was replaced at the break.

This brought me no pleasure, I would rather have seen him put in a solid performance that won us a point or even three.

This was a poor result for the way we conceded the two goals, but the plus point was that although at times we were being overwhelmed by an Arsenal side who came at us hard and fast on the break, we dug in defended doggedly till the final whistle and made sure it was a defeat not a rout.

We were in the game right until the last few minutes, we had our chances, despite Arsenal's dominance with 10 shots we only had 2 less than them and we equalled their number on target of 4, the feeling was that if we could sneak a goal we might get back in it, but that goal never came and hopes faded in the final minutes of the game.

Perhaps we were too attack minded, as mentioned both goals came straight after we had poured forward and forced their keeper into a decent save, in the preview I stated that this game might suit us in that we could sit deep and go on the break, Arsenal played us at our own game, they drew us on and then attacked in numbers.

There are many things being said on social media about this defeat, but we have to look at this came in context and we got what all but 3 teams have done at The Emirates and that is get beaten, the Gunners haven't been beaten there in the League since the opening day of the season when Manchester City won 2-0, with only Liverpool and Wolves making it a nervy November with a draw for each.

We have to look at reality now and that is that we are in a relegation battle, but it is not games like this that count, the game against Fulham is vital we need all hands on deck for that one and a full house getting behind the team, the Arsenal game is gone, we can't change it, Gao didn't play them onside, Krueger didn't give a dodgy back pass, it is now all about concentrating on the games we can win.

The Saints supporters kept behind their team to the final whistle on Sunday, they could see that whatever the issues they were trying, they never gave up even though they were outclassed, this could have been a rout, but wasn't because we kept going and were still throwing ourselves into challenges to the final whistle, unlike games at Liverpool Man City etc.

That is what we have to take from this game, we have gambled in getting rid of Hoedt and not signing a central defender, but we are still good enough to get out of it, a couple of defeats are not disaster.

Photo: Action Images

bstokesaint added 16:25 - Feb 25 It’s between a remorseless berserker and a conscientious wrestler
1

davidargyll added 17:47 - Feb 25 C'mon guys!!!! we were beaten by a team that's fourth in the PL! and only by a couple of goals; and we didn't collapse in H2. I can only repeat what I have said before, I reckon we will stay up on goal difference - we are currently 17th - and goals conceded - we are 15th; so don't go getting depreesed now with 30% of the season still to go; and you don't go down if you don't score goals, you go down because you conceed them!! Fulham? They have conceded almost 3.5 goals per game away from home and not won a single game. So let's start to be a little more realistic, albeit it is a 6-pointer, but Arsenal they ain't!!!

2

djtsaints123 added 20:10 - Feb 25 Did anyone see stevens jogging back having lost ball in a very bad position and therein lies the problem when you are the weaker team and lets face it we cant compete with arsenal so only chance work twice as hard as them we did but only when 2 0 down. Truth is stevens is not premiership level sadly for ralph neither are yoshida or vestiguard up front we have one striker and he is injured we have not only no hope of surviving but little hope of returning whilst we believe in our management structure,ralph aside, who actually understand football. Do we have any player who could get into a premier side aside from a few maybes truthfully no, if you have philosophy of buying young talent great but it has to continue not just assume we have a black box guess what so does everyone else we(supporters) have been screwed by greedy management.

2

KriSaint added 23:40 - Feb 25 We are in deep trouble but - looking at it - I think 36 points will be enough to stay up. Last season when Hughes took over, I pointed out that victories vs Bournemouth (home) and Swansea (away) and draws vs Everton (away) and Leicester (away) could turn out to be enough to stay up. This turned out to be the case. This season I think that victories vs Fulham (home) and Bournemouth (home) and Huddersfield (home) + draws vs Wolves (home) and Brighton (away) and Newcastle (away) will bring us the 12 points we need to stay up. These point predictions should not be unrealistic. It will propably go down to the last round which hopefully means that our last game, the home game vs Huddersfield, will save us, if we win.

1

Blogs 32 bloggers

Peterborough United Polls