Southampton caused a major upset by beating Arsenal in the FA Cup (Picture: Getty)
Piers Morgan reflected the mood of every Arsenal fan following their FA Cup defeat against Southampton by rejecting talkSPORT’s invitation to discuss another major setback.
Mikel Arteta’s men suffered an almighty shock at St Mary’s on Saturday evening as the Championship play-off hopefuls’ intensity and courage paid dividends in a famous 2-1 quarter-final triumph.
Substitute Shea Charles’ late strike sent Southampton to the semi-finals and left Arsenal with some soul searching as the shock defeat compounded their Carabao Cup final loss to Manchester City a fortnight ago.
The Gunners will attempt to get back to winning ways in Lisbon in Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Sporting, before the runaway league leaders host Bournemouth in a key game on Saturday.
While there is still plenty to play for over the course of the next six weeks, the feeling of losing momentum as the finish line approaches is all too familiar for a fanbase who have read this script before.
And Celebrity super fan Mogan, who was already left with egg on his face after he was mocked by Southampton’s X account having delighted in the fact Arsenal were drawn against lower league opposition last month, was unwilling to face the music when asked to join talkSPORT’s breakfast show hosts Ray Parlour and Jamie O’Hara for a debrief.
‘I just can’t face it,’ wrote Morgan above a screenshot of a WhatsApp conversation which he ended with a response which read ‘I’d rather shoot myself’.
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Piers Morgan did not take Arsenal’s defeat well (Picture: X)
While it might take Morgan time to come to terms with events on the south coast, experienced midfielder Christian Norgaard is confident he and his teammates will produce an immediate response.
The message is to have a positive body language, to talk with your team-mates, with the coaching staff.
‘Now is not the time to go with our heads down for too long,’ said the Denmark international.
Southampton will play at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final (Picture: Getty)
‘It’s fine to be frustrated tonight and also tomorrow to analyse what went wrong, but then we also have to look forward because there are so many big games coming up for this club.’
Arsenal need to shake off their first back-to-back defeats of the season to avoid further damage to what has until recently been a memorable campaign.
‘Disappointing evening,’ Norgaard told club media. ‘We all had our hopes high to win and go back to Wembley, but yeah, that’s not the case.
‘Sorry to disappoint so many travelling fans, they created an amazing atmosphere and, yeah, today was not good enough.’
Piers Morgan thought Arsenal had been handed a great draw (Picture: X)
Injury-disrupted Arsenal only managed to threaten periodically at St Mary’s, where few would argue that the hosts did not deserve to progress to Wembley.
Ross Stewart coolly struck Saints ahead and Leo Scienza hit the crossbar shortly before Viktor Gyokeres levelled, only for super sub Charles to spark bedlam with a fine finish five minutes from time.
Goalscorer, and boyhood Arsenal fan, Stewart said: ‘It’s just pure joy and elation, an incredible night for the club to beat a team of Arsenal’s calibre in the manner that we did.
‘I thought we were excellent. It’s an incredible night for the club and there were some good celebrations in the dressing room – we’ll enjoy tonight.
‘It’s a great occasion to look forward to, but we’ve got a lot of league business that we’ve got to take care of, and the gaffer has just reinforced that – starting Tuesday we’ve got to be ready to go for another tough game.’
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