Arsenal were knocked out of the EFL Cup in humiliating fashion by a visiting Southampton, and manager Arsene Wenger was visibly upset.
The Frenchman did not hold back with his criticism of his players and expressed his disappointment at the loss in his post match press conference. The Gunners were thoroughly outplayed at the Emirates from start to finish and Wenger lamented his side’s lack of urgency. Goals from Jordy Clasie and Ryan Bertrand in the first half helped the Saints to their first EFL Cup Semi-Final in almost 30 years.
Speaking to the media after the match, according to Arsenal.com, he said “We had a disappointing performance, especially in the first half. We gave ourselves a mountain to climb. We were not good enough defensively and gave cheap goals away in the first half. We didn’t have enough urgency in the first half, we were weak in some departments and we paid for that.”
He went on to say his side weren’t incisive enough in the first half, saying that Southampton defended deep and were the shaper side on the night. “With a two-goal advantage, everybody defended very well. If you give a handicap of two goals in the first half against a Premier League team, it’s difficult.”
Arsenal did not field a weak side last night by any stretch of the imagination. Gibbs, Coquelin, Elneny, Ramsey, Iwobi started the match and summer signing Granit Xhaka was introduced later. It was a strong team that eventually retired to the dressing room after the match to a chorus of boos from their home fans and Wenger insisted he had regrets from the game.
“I have regrets on having lost the game,” he said. “When you look at the team we played, in midfield we had Coquelin, Ramsey, Elneny, afterwards Xhaka. Up front we had Lucas, Giroud was injured. We had Iwobi, who is a regular player in the first team. I don’t think the problem was there – we had players who are used to top-level competition but I think we maybe didn’t have the right urgency from the start on.”
