Shkodran Mustafi happy with Arsenal debut

The Gunners have now reeled off back-to-back wins but they remain five points behind leader Manchester City and looking far from being title challengers.

Southampton manager Claude Puel spoke on their loss to Arsenal, including the late penalty setting up the game winning goal.

Santi Cazorla scored from the spot to seal a 2-1 win and give Arsene Wenger’s men back-to-back league victories either side of the global break. “Mustafi has only played one half since the start of the season with Valencia, so they are missing games”, he said.

“Our game is not as fluent as it could be and it should be. It is a win after Watford and, if you can put a few wins together like we have, we will be more confident”.

“Obviously we did so, so we are happy with the three points and we go game by game and try to improve every day”.

“I feel both are short (of fitness) a bit”.

Arsenal won at Watford before the global break, having previously taken only one point from their first two games of the season, and Wenger said: “Two wins together is a big help, it gives players more confidence to get to where we want to be”.

Summer recruit Nathan Redmond again operated in a forward role and admits it was painful to lose in such circumstances.

“I don’t think he would know enough about big foreign players to attract them”, Parlour told talkSPORT.

“To not come away with anything due to a controversial decision is devastating”.

“We played fantastic. We had the best situations to score and win the game against a very good team”, added Puel, who spent several seasons as a player under Wenger when they were at Monaco.