Arsene Wenger admits his Arsenal side were haunted by memories of their defeat to Manchester United in the early stages of a 1-1 draw at Southampton.
Per Mertesacker’s careless clearance and subsequent slip handed Charlie Austin a third-minute opener that Arsenal were unable to counter until the dying moments at St Mary’s, when substitute Olivier Giroud flicked home Alexis Sanchez’s cross.
An early error from a centre-back was a familiar sight for Arsenal, who had been undone by Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi’s sloppy play in their 3-1 home defeat against Manchester United, a result Wenger conceded his defenders were bearing the scars from.
“I felt that the Manchester United game played a bit of a part in the head of our defenders,” he said.
“It was a bit in their head and they were a bit apprehensive to start well again and that's why it is sometimes not good to talk about the problem because you create a bigger one.
“I'm not happy with the point because I wanted three, but if you cannot win it, don't lose it and we kept going.
“We were relentless, after a difficult start we were caught cold and overall it was a windy, rainy afternoon against a team who played well and were quick on the counter-attack.”
In Pictures | Southampton vs Arsenal | 10/12/2017
Arsenal left it late to mount their comeback and were unable to muster a shot on target in the second half until the 85th minute, when Sanchez curled a free-kick too close to Fraser Forster.
Southampton continued to pose a threat to Arsenal on the counter and spurned a fine chance for a second when Ryan Bertrand shot wide when one-on-one with Petr Cech. However Wenger was more concerned with the hosts’ perceived attempts to run down the clock.
“I must say I am very frustrated as in the second half there was a lot of time-wasting,” he added.
“Especially on the final ball on the counter-attack, it is very frustrating to give the advantage to the guy who had the foul because we were not only called back.
“We were three against one but we played it quick and the referee called the ball back without any reason and that was a huge advantage for Southampton in the final minute.”