TIME will tell whether this Boxing Day massacre proves to be a knockout blow for Arsenal's hopes of landing their first Premier League title since 2004.
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| Arsenal blew their chance to go top after Southampton hammered them 4-0 at St Mary's |
With top spot theirs for the taking after Leicester's defeat at Liverpool, they froze solid and failed completely to take the form that had seen off Manchester City into the match at St Mary's.
But holiday football being what it is, they have a chance to make amends to their fans instantly against another South Coast side, Bournemouth, at the Emirates Stadium on Monday.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger outwardly believes that Saturday's debacle was one of those things and that on another day his team might have won.
"They were sharper physically than us," he said. "That can happen even if it's not fatigue. It can happen on any given day. Maybe we could play again tomorrow and we could win and be sharper."
But inwardly he must be concerned at his players' capitulation on Saturday, and while he may be able to lift the morale for today, his injury-hit squad has bigger problems and desperately needs Francis Coquelin, Santi Cazorla and Alexis Sanchez back. Jack Wilshere too, although his return date has been pushed back again, to February at the earliest.
He also knows the doubters will not trust his team until it proves that a disappointment does not lurk around the corner after every promising result.
"We are used to being questioned and it's normal when you lose a game," he said. "Overall we are strong enough to deal with that, respond and show on Monday night that we can get over that kind of result."
And he denied the pressure of needing to win to go to the top of the table had been too much for some players.
"At this stage of the season, I don't give too much importance to that. What is more important for me is that we show quality in our games, show consistency and focus on that."
The obvious answer at some clubs would be to freshen the team up by rotating in the short term and buying in January. But Wenger defended his decision to keep an unchanged team for the fourth successive match and repeated his belief that promoting from within will always be his preferred option over buying.
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| Wenger watches on as Arsenal suffered a Boxing Day nightmare |
"If you lose a game, people say, 'Why didn't you change?' If you lose a game [after] you change, people will say, 'Why did you change a team which had won a game in a convincing way?'
"You can only think when you have lost that you are wrong. But I believe in this team because they have been winning and 80 per cent of the players have not been overloaded, they have not played too many games.
"If you look at the number of games that Flamini, Ramsey, Campbell played since the start of the season, even Giroud was out for a long while, didn't play games, Walcott as well and just comes back. All these players are not overloaded with games.
"Yes we are a bit short, because of the injuries we have. But sometimes as well the solution is inside and you have to accept that because we are a club which has always given a chance to players we have educated. People forget that sometimes and always want new faces."
Ronald Koeman, the Southampton manager, was delighted with his own team's response to the previous weekend's home defeat by Tottenham and an emphatic end to a run of five matches that delivered only a single point.
"The last few weeks we had some problems but the performance was excellent and gives everyone confidence," he said. "It's really all about belief and after we went 2-0 up you really saw that belief back in the players."
He will not be able to call on Graziano Pelle or Cedric Soares at West Ham today, both of whom missed this match though injury.
Their replacements did well - Cuco Martina scored a 30-yard thunderbolt on his first Premier League start to put Saints ahead after 19 minutes, and Shane Long terrorised the Arsenal back four, scoring twice, either side of Jose Fonte's header, and hit the post. But the Dutchman is concerned about a holiday workload almost unknown in his native Holland.
"You need recovery time," he said. "I like Boxing Day, stadiums full of supporters, but to play again in 43 hours, it's not normal. It's the same for West Ham, but we have to travel."
SOUTHAMPTON (4-2-3-1): Stekelenburg 6; Martina 7, Fonte 7, Van Dijk 6, Bertrand 7; Wanyama 7, Clasie 6 (Romeu 67, 6); Ward-Prowse 7 (Tadic 71, 6), Mane 8 (Juanmi 81), Davis 7; Long 9. Booked: Long. Goals: Martina 19, Long 55, 90, Fonte 69. NEXT UP: West Ham (a) PL, Monday.
ARSENAL (4-2-3-1): Cech 6; Bellerin 5, Mertesacker 4, Koscielny 5, Monreal 6; Flamini 4 (Chambers 74, 5), Ramsey 5; Campbell 4 (Oxlade-Chamberlain 64, 5), Ozil 6, Walcott 5 (Iwobe 78); Giroud 5. NEXT UP: Bournemouth (h) PL, Monday.
Referee: J Moss (West Riding).
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