Ronald Koeman said he was proud of his “unlucky” Saints as they went down 1-0 at Arsenal.

Having battled so hard and shown great character to bounce back after the 3-0 defeat to Manchester City, Saints were finally undone with two minutes to go by Alexis Sanchez.

By that stage they had been reduced to ten men after Toby Alderweireld pulled his hamstring just a couple of minutes after Saints had introduced Emmanuel Mayuka for a third and final substitution.

Despite the defeat, Saints played very well and overall Koeman was satisfied with what he saw.

“We spoke last Sunday because we did so many mistakes on our ball possession,” he said.

“If you watch the second and the third goal last Sunday and if you like to be competitive against teams like Arsenal, Man City, Man United then we need our ball possession because that’s one of our qualities.

“We showed that and I’m proud of that.

“It’s a different way of losing a game to last Sunday in my opinion.”

When asked if Saints would have got at least a point had they finished the game with 11 men Koeman added: “It’s difficult to say because I think after one hour it was more difficult for us to keep the ball.

“But the first hour we did outstanding and the team gave a very good reaction after they lost last Sunday. Our ball possession was much better.

“After one hour it was more difficult, we didn’t keep the ball like before and unlucky with the injuries.

“In my opinion that gave Arsenal the motivation to bring more in the last ten minutes with 11 players against ten players.

“You know the qualities of them that they can create and Fraser (Forster) was outstanding but it wasn’t enough to keep the clean sheet until the last second.

“Unlucky after the third change we made to have a hamstring injury to a player like Toby gave Arsenal the step back into the game and to have the motivation until the last second.”

Koeman admitted that he was surprised that Arsenal seemed to show his side such respect, and felt his team should take heart from that.

“Today was difficult, last Sunday was more difficult because we didn’t play well. This time we had a good ball possession,” he reflected.

“I was surprised that Arsenal was waiting, Arsenal was not pressing from the beginning, and that’s a compliment for us.

“You need a little bit lucky. We play well the first half, we had the best chance in the game for Pelle, in the second half one of Shane Long, but we were not lucky in the injuries that we had.

“11 against 11 against Arsenal is difficult. 11 against ten is more difficult and they have the quality to score the goal in the last ten minutes.”