Oriol Romeu analysed Southampton’s 2-0 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday and believed his side didn’t do enough to earn anything against Unai Emery’s men.
Saints had the chance to do the double over the Gunners and move out of the relegation zone in the Premier League if they avoided defeat at the Emirates.
However, two early strikes from Alexandre Lacazette and Henrikh Mkhitaryan condemned Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side to back-to-back losses in the league.
Southampton struggled to react to falling two goals behind in the first half but showed a spirited performance after the break that will give them hope of avoiding relegation this season.
Romeu admitted to the club’s official website following the loss that Saints didn’t do enough to claim anything against Arsenal, but was pleased by the reaction in the second half.
He said:
It was tough, especially in the first half. We were not getting near enough to their players, who were playing quick football between the lines with one or two touches. We were trying to react, but we were not close enough to them.
In the second half, we tried to go higher. We put four at the back and more players up front so we could get closer to them and make sure their midfielders were not playing those balls between the lines. That helped us – we had more chances in their half and put more pressure on them. That reaction was good, but probably not enough.
Saints face Fulham in a crucial game in midweek, before two tricky looking fixtures against Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.
And Romeu believes that if Saints are to take anything against the bigger teams, they will need to be more clinical with their chances.
Against these teams, if you want to get something you need to be clinical and score your chances. At home, when we beat them last time, we had four chances and scored three goals. Today, we had four or five but didn’t score any. That’s very important. If you don’t get that right, there is not much chance of getting something out of the game.
