Football can be a cruel game. On a night where we hoped to book our place in the FA Cup semi-finals, we instead witnessed a major upset as Championship side Southampton defeated us 2-1 at St Mary's Stadium. The Saints wore a commemorative yellow kit marking 50 years since their 1976 FA Cup win, and played like it meant something.
The first half was a struggle for rhythm. Despite controlling possession, we fell behind in the 35th minute, James Bree crossing to the far post for Ross Stewart to finish past Kepa.
The second half saw an improved performance, and when Viktor Gyökeres finished Kai Havertz's pull-back in the 68th minute, it felt like we would go on to win it. We camped in their half, but Daniel Peretz kept everything out, including a late Max Dowman curler.
Then came the sucker punch. In the 85th minute, with us pushing for a winner, substitute Shea Charles placed a low finish into the bottom corner to send the Saints to Wembley.
"We conceded the first goal in a very unusual way for us, the second one was from direct play as well," said Arteta. "We didn't manage the long balls well enough. We just let the ball through us. Difficult to explain but credit to them."
He was blunt about the chances we did make: "We had so much dominance in and around the box. We had two massive chances and needed to capitalise on that. But if you make defending errors we made today it's very difficult to be in the semi-final."
Only our fifth defeat of the campaign, and the second cup exit in a fortnight after Wembley. Nine points clear in the league, and as the boss put it, "Now we have to show what we are made of."
Man of the Match: Viktor Gyökeres. He was the only real bright spark in attack and took his goal with the composure of a world-class striker.