Defender Ryan Bertrand delivered an honest assessment after Southampton’s 2-0 defeat at the hands of Arsenal, bemoaning the goals gifted to the visitors.
Returning to St Mary’s for the first time since the Premier League restart, Saints fell behind in calamitous fashion as Eddie Nketiah intercepted a stray pass from goalkeeper Alex McCarthy to tap into an empty net.
Proving to be the difference at the break, the hosts pressed for an equaliser after the restart but saw the pendulum of momentum swing back in favour of the Gunners inside the final 10 minutes when last-man Jack Stephens was dismissed for a foul on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
From the resulting free-kick, Saints couldn’t clear their lines and when Alexandre Lacazette’s shot was parried into the path of Joe Willock, the youngster converted from close range.
Reflecting on the match, Bertrand felt mixed emotions: “At the end of the day, in the Premier League you can’t give away two cheap goals.
“No matter what you do, if you do that you’re going to get punished. Other than that, we definitely deserved something, but we gave them two goals.
“Before the sending off – which levelled things in their favour I guess – it was a strange one, because even though we weren’t fully firing in first half, other than the goal we gave them we were the better team I’d say.
“In the second half also, we definitely created a few chances, but if you give away cheap, cheap goals at this level, it is what it is.”
Bathed in sunshine on the south coast, Bertrand also admitted to missing the influence of the supporters.
“Coming here to play without the fans, we missed them, especially going behind as we did, we usually rely on them to get behind us and get us back on track.
“When we were on top for good parts of the game, they can be the difference for us driving it home, so we definitely missed them.”
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