Arsenal legend unhappy with Southampton captain in Arsenal defeat

Southampton signed midfielder Flynn Downes from West Ham in a £15 transfer move in the transfer window following his brilliant loan spell at the Saints last season. Downes is a box-to-box midfielder by trait and possesses incredible game awareness to make several key passes in the match. Moreover the 25-year-old has impressive leadership abilities and was made the club captain as well in the absence of experienced defender Jack Stephens, who is currently unavailable after receiving a red card against Manchester United.

Downes captained the Saints for the first time against his former side Ipswich Town and gave a good individual performance and encouraged the whole team to put up an impressive display in the 1-1 draw. Further, Downes even admitted collective responsibility after the 3-1 Bournemouth defeat, suggesting that the first half performance was unacceptable from Russell Martin's side in the Premier League. His calm and composed playmaking from the midfield coupled with his consistency led him to start the seventh consecutive Premier League fixture against Arsenal, leading the Saints for a third time in the English top flight.

Arsenal legend unhappy with Southampton captain in Arsenal defeat

While Southampton gave a heroic defensive display in the first half and even took a surprise 1-0 lead in the second half, Downes made a huge mistake in the match as he gave away the ball possession while attempting a no-look pass. This was a huge blow to Southampton's momentum who couldn't remain defensively focused as in the first half, and conceded two more goals to face a sixth league defeat after seven matches. Analysing the second half of the match, Arsenal legend David Seaman was unhappy with Downes's decision making on that pass, saying,

"That pass, that no-look pass is so frustrating. When I see people doing that, I am like why?"

- David Seaman

Seaman suggested that Downes could have tried making a normal pass and Southampton should have held on to their lead for a longer time. However, that wasn't the case and Southampton have received another important lesson before the international break which is to remain focused in both defence and attack throughout the match.

Russell Martin's side already needs to improve their overall performance and now must learn from their mistakes as well in order to start taking important points from every match. Therefore, it remains to be seen how much progress is made by Southampton as they face Leicester City and Manchester City in two huge Premier League fixtures after the international break.