Arsenal Must Not Be Too Long in the Mud, Sporting Ready to Catch Up

Christian Norgaard says Arsenal should not dwell too much on their shock FA Cup defeat against Southampton.

The English Premier League leaders must bounce back as a crucial match in the Champions League quarterfinal awaits.

Mikel Arteta's men suffered a crushing defeat at St Mary's on Sunday, April 5, 2026 WIB, with a score of 1-2. The intensity and courage of the team that hopes to qualify for the Championship playoff brought disaster for Arsenal in the FA Cup quarterfinal.

Shea Charles' late goal as a substitute took Southampton to the semi-finals and left Arsenal to reflect on a shock defeat that added to their disappointment after losing the Carabao Cup final to Manchester City two weeks ago.

The Gunners will try to return to winning ways in Lisbon in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Sporting, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, before the league leaders host Bournemouth in an important match on Saturday, April 11, 2026.

"The message I want to convey is to have a positive body language, to speak with teammates, with the coaching staff."

"Now is not the time to keep our heads down for too long. It's okay to feel frustrated tonight and tomorrow to analyze what went wrong."

"However, we also have to look forward because there are so many big matches coming up for this club," said experienced midfielder, Norgaard.

Arsenal need to forget their first back-to-back defeats of the season to avoid further damage.

"It's a disappointing night. We all had high hopes of winning and coming back to Wembley, but, yeah, it didn't happen."

"Sorry to disappoint so many fans who came, they created an amazing atmosphere. Yes, today was not good enough," said Norgaard.

An injury-plagued Arsenal were only able to threaten intermittently at St Mary's, where few would argue the hosts deserved to advance to Wembley.

Ross Stewart calmly scored the opening goal for the Saints and Leo Scienza hit the crossbar shortly before Viktor Gyokeres equalised.

Unfortunately, the super substitute Charles triggered the home team's excitement with a nice finish five minutes before the end of the time.