My thoughts...

For me Friday's game showed that there are no 'gimmes' in the EPL. The standard generally is very high and if you are off your game by even 5% than you'll get hurt. Even the mighty Citeh drew at Forest and these games can happen. We were off by more than that against Southampton. Stupid risk taking led to their first; sloppiness in MF for their second.

Funnily enough I'm more sanguine about Friday's result than I was with that at Anfield and at West Ham. Southampton are a bogey team for us. Arenal have 'always' in recent times been a team that beat themselves with stupid mistakes, but to lose our composure when we were in total control at those 2 away games was very difficult to stomach.

And lack of control/composure is the issue with our team lately, IMO. It's not a lack of self belief per se - we still have this. Instead it is losing our heads. Friday was anarchic - as we were so desperate to make amends for going 0-2 down. It's ironic that Arteta's team has transformed from an over-structured set up that frustrated with a lack of lateral movement to one that is too gung ho and aggressive - creating far to many turnovers and attacking opprtunities for the other side. We need to understand when to push high, and remember that probing for an opportunity but keeping the ball - and waiting for an error from the other side lets us control the tempo of a game and puts our defence under less pressure. We need to trust in the quality of our MF and attack to take opportunities when they present themselves - not try to force the issue.

We looked immature and jittery on Friday - as we did for large periods of the preceding 2 games. It's too easy to blame injuries for this. More a mindset - that has disintegrated a bit with pressure.

And while I have not tended to point the finger at the Manager recently, he made some obvious mistakes against Southampton. I don't understand what Vieira has shown to merit a start ahead of Trossard, and if there were any instructions to manage the game state properly then these were not in evidence. A slow patient start was required - to allow our team's superior quality to assert itself. Instead we saw a team looking to score goals from the off - and this set the tone for a chaotic display.

Its difficult to see where the magical turnaround is going to come from with this team ATM. Its seems a bit strange referring to a turnaround when we have not lost the past 3 games - but I mean a turnaround in self control. I agree that our only hope is to be positive against Citeh on Wednesday, but any less than 100% focus will only mean one thing...