Southampton defender Yan Valery admits he “should have done better” during a rare Premier League start in last night’s 3-1 defeat to Arsenal, speaking to the Saints’ official website.
Was the player to blame or the system?
Ralph Hasenhuttl instructs his full-backs to push aggressively up the pitch in transition but, when Southampton lost possession inside their own half nine minutes in at St Mary’s, Valery was caught out as Xhaka played an inch-perfect through ball into the channel for Nicolas Pepe to cancel out Stuart Armstrong’s early opener.
The Frenchman could have reacted quicker to the danger but can hardly be blamed for looking to drive up the wing as a counter-attack appeared on the cards.
Valery, however, was making no excuses after a 3-1 defeat that saw Arsenal move above Southampton in the table.
“We started the game right and scored the first goal, but after that we made a few mistakes and I think all the goals came from our mistakes,” says the 21-year-old, who made a first start of the campaign in Kyle Walker-Peters’ absence.
“Now we need to just learn from it and move on. In the second half we started good as well but when they scored the third one, we just gave up.
“For the first goal I think I could’ve come back quicker, but I have to learn from it. It was my first start of the season and it’s always hard to come back from a long time. But I’m not trying to use excuses. I should’ve done better and will learn from it and move on.”
Fellow youngster Jake Vokins was out of position for Saka’s strike too, with both of Arsenal’s first-half efforts coming from similar circumstances.
Valery and Vokins did show plenty of confidence and quality at the other end of the pitch, however. The former produced a brilliant cross Danny Ings could have put away, while the latter set up a chance for Che Adams.
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