Following Arsenal's defeat to Southampton, Mikel Arteta said: “Now we must show our mettle”.

Arteta's team fell behind after Ross Stewart scored in the first half at the lively St Mary's Stadium, before Viktor Gyokeres came on from the bench and equalised in the second half.

Arsenal performed below their best due to the absence of two English stars, Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka, who were out with injuries. Meanwhile, Brazilian defender Gabriel Magalhaes was forced off with a knee injury.

They paid the price in the 85th minute when Shea Charles scored the decisive goal for Southampton from the edge of the box.

Arteta admitted he was disappointed with Arsenal's lacklustre performance, particularly their sloppy defending, which he found very frustrating.

"We conceded the first goal in a very unusual way for us, and the second goal came from a direct ball," he said.

"We didn't handle the long balls well. We just let the ball slip through our defence. It's hard to explain, but credit to them."

"We dominated in and around the penalty area. We had two huge chances and we need to take them. But if we make the same defensive mistakes as today, it will be very difficult to reach the semi-finals."

Arsenal's hopes of winning the FA Cup for the first time since 2020 — their most recent major title — were dashed in a strong wind off the south coast.

The Premier League leaders have seen their dreams of a quadruple and treble shattered after losing 2-0 to Manchester City in the League Cup final and now suffering a humiliating defeat to Southampton.

'You have to adapt to the wind and injuries. You have to adapt to difficult situations during the season. Now we must show our mettle," Arteta said.

Arteta has previously described the pain of losing the League Cup final as being like "a lump in the stomach", and Arsenal's unfortunate exit from the FA Cup will undoubtedly lead the Spanish coach to seek relief from stomach pain.

"High expectations"

This is Arsenal's fifth defeat of the season, and the first time they have lost two consecutive matches in all competitions this season.

They don't have much time to recover from the defeat as they prepare for the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Sporting CP on Tuesday, before continuing their quest for the Premier League title, which would be their first in 22 years.

The north London team are nine points ahead of second-placed City in the race for the title.

Throughout the season, you have to go through different phases. Some phases are difficult for a variety of reasons. Now, after two disappointing results, we must pick ourselves up," Arteta shared.

'Everything has always been like this since the beginning of the season, when the expectations for the team were very high.'

"It is highly unlikely that anyone will set any higher standards for us."

Southampton's memorable victory came 50 years after they caused an upset by beating Manchester United in the FA Cup final, a victory they celebrated by wearing yellow and blue outfits in their match against Arsenal, one of their greatest surprises as a second-tier team.

"That's more of a story for the media," said coach Tonda Eckert, talking about the similarities with Bobby Stokes and the other heroes of Southampton's 1976 team.

'Today, we played well. It was a challenge; we knew it would be a tough game. We always have the opportunity to change the situation in the second half, and we reacted quite well.'

Southampton, who beat Fulham in the fifth round in March, have reached the semi-finals at Wembley for the first time since 2021.

However, Eckert's team are now looking ahead to another Wembley match in the Championship play-off race, with an important match against Wrexham coming up on Tuesday.

'We always had faith, that was never the issue. The fact is that the match was very close. It's great to celebrate today, but tomorrow we'll be moving on to the next round of the Championship against Wrexham," Eckert said.