Hasenhüttl laments familiar frustrations
Ralph Hasenhüttl was left lamenting familiar woes after Southampton’s 3-0 defeat at the Emirates Stadium.
As has been a common trend in recent matches, Saints began on the front foot but were unable to kill off their opponents, failing to capitalise on some promising attacking positions.
The visitors then fell behind in the blink of an eye, as Alexandre Lacazette finished off a flowing counter-attack in the 21st minute.
When Martin Ødegaard doubled the lead six minutes later, Saints were immediately left with a mountain to climb, and Brazilian defender Gabriel added a second-half third to seal their fate.
“I think the first goal changed the momentum completely. We had, until that moment, absolute control of the game, and kept them in their half,” Hasenhüttl said.
“But it’s always the same – if you don’t take something out of this momentum, and you concede the first chance and the first goal, then it is definitely a booster for them. That’s normal.
“We are coming into these situations, but the output is not enough. This is what you need in such a game – a good start, score a goal, but even then it is tough because they have quality.
“After the second they get even more comfortable – they have the quality and this is what they have shown today; the quality to let you run, to play through your lines, and then it’s getting tough. This is not surprising.
“When they are coming in their flow it is tough to defend – this is a top-six team, and we have seen that this is not so easy to defend this quality.”
To compound matters for Saints, Hasenhüttl was forced to take off Adam Armstrong and Armando Broja during the match due to injury, having already been without fellow striker Ché Adams.
“We must have a look at how serious these injuries are, but it’s becoming a time of the season where we have seen all the teams are having some injuries,” he added.
“We have a big squad, but with three games coming up again this week there are a lot of things to work on.
“We have to play different from today, that is for sure. In every part of our game we have to be stronger, I think, and we have to go again.”
