Arsenal must avoid dwelling on their shock FA Cup exit at Southampton, with Christian Norgaard urging the Premier League leaders to quickly refocus and respond in the Champions League.
Arsenal were stunned at St Mary’s on Saturday evening as Mikel Arteta’s side were beaten 2-1 in the quarterfinal by a spirited Championship play-off chasing team whose intensity and bravery secured a famous victory.
A late winner from Shea Charles sent Southampton into the semifinals, leaving Arsenal reeling after another setback following their recent Carabao Cup final loss to Manchester City.
The Gunners will look to return to winning form in Lisbon against Sporting CP in Tuesday’s Champions League quarterfinal first leg before hosting AFC Bournemouth in a crucial league clash on Saturday.
Christian Norgaard acknowledged the situation as the experienced midfielder offered his perspective.
“The message is to have positive body language, to talk with your teammates, and with the coaching staff.”
“Now is not the time to go with our heads down for too long.”
“It’s fine to be frustrated tonight and also tomorrow to analyze what went wrong, but then we also have to look forward because there are so many big games coming up for this club.”
The North London side must quickly recover from their first consecutive defeats of the season to prevent further harm to what had been a highly impressive campaign.
“Disappointing evening,” Norgaard said. “We all had our hopes high to win and go back to Wembley, but yeah, that’s not the case.”
“Sorry to disappoint so many travelling fans; they created an amazing atmosphere, and, yeah, today was not good enough.”
Arsenal, hampered by injuries, only showed occasional threat at St Mary’s, where Southampton were widely seen as deserving their progression to Wembley.
Ross Stewart gave Southampton the lead before Viktor Gyökeres equalized after Leo Scienza had hit the crossbar, with Shea Charles then coming off the bench to net a late winner and ignite wild celebrations.
Goalscorer and boyhood Arsenal fan Ross Stewart shared his thoughts after the game.
“It’s just pure joy and elation, an incredible night for the club to beat a team of Arsenal’s calibre in the manner that we did.”
“I thought we were excellent. It’s an incredible night for the club, and there were some good celebrations in the dressing room—we’ll enjoy tonight.”
“It’s a great occasion to look forward to, but we’ve got a lot of league business that we’ve got to take care of, and the gaffer has just reinforced that—starting Tuesday we’ve got to be ready to go for another tough game.”
Southampton aim for their FA Cup semifinal to be the first of three trips to Wembley before the season concludes.
The Saints continue to chase the dream of matching Lawrie McMenemy’s 1976 second-tier FA Cup triumph while also pursuing promotion ahead of Tuesday’s clash with playoff rivals Wrexham.
“I think it’s just where we’re at as a squad,” Stewart told the club website. “That confidence, that belief, the character.”
“We knew it was going to be tough, but we spoke about it throughout the week: we’re a team that’s 14 games unbeaten; we know we’re a hard team to beat, and I think you saw that again.”