Mikel Arteta refuses to discuss Arsenal’s four best chances

Mikel Arteta still refuses to put a goal on a season which has shown a massive recovery from a Boxing Day win over Chelsea.

The Gunners have moved up to eighth place in the Premier League table after a 3-1 win at Southampton just three days after losing on the South Coast in the FA Cup fourth round.

Stuart Armstrong had beaten Southampton up front with a nice early strike, but the visitors would lead in the interval thanks to goals from Nicolas Pepe and Bukayo Saka. Alexandre Lacazette would conclude the points later.

Although Arsenal have now won five of their last six league games, Arteta said: “ I don’t want to look at the table.

“I want to look at us, how we can improve, why we play better and win football matches.

“Tomorrow is another day, train yourself, improve in many areas and see where we are.

The Arsenal boss has dedicated his comeback victory at St Mary’s to captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – absent for personal reasons.

The Gunners skipper was out for both games against the Saints after leaving the team hours before Saturday’s cup loss.

Asked about Aubameyang’s situation, Arteta replied, “ I loved the way they support each other and how they protect themselves. Auba is going through a difficult time and we are all behind him. This victory was for him.

For Southampton, the defeat means they have only won one of their last seven league games.

Ralph Hasenhuttl’s men were nowhere near the levels that saw them oust the FA Cup holders on Saturday as his small side struggled under the pressure of a condensed matchlist.

He was unable to call on first-choice full-backs Ryan Bertrand and Kyle Walker-Peters due to suspension and injury, respectively, and admitted the Saints needed to have more fit players to be able to challenge the biggest teams.

“We still have 29 points, that’s a good thing – the only win was against Liverpool – we know we’re a good team if everything is perfect and we’re in good shape. I’m sure we’ll play better next week, ”he said.

“ We’re definitely running out of players at the moment, I hope a few will come back but right now it’s like that, it’s not a good situation but that’s why we shouldn’t be too negative.

“We have 29 points, we knew that such situations could happen to us, if we have injuries, it certainly hurts us more than the best teams.

“Everyone can see for themselves how much it affected the result today, we conceded two easy goals in the first half.

“The effort was good in the first half, the quality was not good enough today to be competitive against this team.”

When asked if he would like to add another full back before the transfer window closes on Monday, Hasenhuttl replied: “ If we have the money and the chance to get one, yes I will. would like to do it.