Southampton 1-0 Arsenal: 3 things learned as Gunners fall to disappointing defeat in “favourite competiton”

3. A convincing performance from the Saints

In a game that ended only 1-0, Southampton could have scored more, with the closest attempt coming in the first half from a James Ward-Prowse corner which came curling around and bounced off the bar; something that not many of the players, especially Bernd Leno in goal were expecting. This was an example of how threatening the Saints are when it comes to set pieces and especially when free-kick specialist Ward-Prowse is on the end of it.

Southampton proved they were in it to win it on all areas of the pitch and when Arsenal gradually bought themselves back into the game, they defended effectively and denied chances that came at Fraser Forster, mainly in the second half. The best save came from Eddie Nketiah’s close-range effort where the Saint’s Keeper had to stretch out his body to make the important save.

Hasenhuttl’s side always showed the intent to attack. He praised his players and mentioned particularly the first half and said: “We had in the first half more punch and power”.

It was a very convincing performance from the home side who have not had the best run of form recently in the league and this will give them a boost ahead of their meeting against Arsenal again in the Premier League on Tuesday.