Wenger defends selection after Southampton loss

ARSENE Wenger defended his decision to make 10 changes after Arsenal were defeated 2-0 by Southampton in the EFL Cup quarter-finals.

Gunners midfielder Mohamed Elneny was the only survivor from Sunday’s Premier League win over Bournemouth and even with Granit Xhaka and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain coming off the bench, Wenger’s men never looked close to getting on the scoresheet.

The defeat is Arsenal’s first in 19 games in all competitions, but Wenger says the only thing he would change is the result of the match.

He said: “I regret that we lost the game. “We had played well until now. “In midfield we had Coquelin, Ramsey, Elneny, Xhaka, Perez. We had Iwobi, one of the regular players in the first team.

“The problem wasn’t there. We had players who are used to top-level competition. But we didn’t have the right urgency.

He added: “I’m disappointed. We had a disappointing performance, particularly in the first half.

“I think we were not good enough defensively and gave cheap goals away in the first half.

“We didn’t have enough urgency in the first half and were weak in some departments. We paid for that. We were not incisive enough.

Southampton are through to their first League Cup semi-final since 1987, when they were beaten over two legs by Liverpool, the same team they face in this year’s semi-finals.

Manager Claude Puel was happy with how his team performed.

“It was a great performance because this game was a different profile,” he said.

“We were clinical in the first half, with two goals from two chances. I like this.”