Arsenal succumbed to their fourth home league loss in a row for the first time since 1959 with a 1-0 defeat to Burnley at the Emirates.
The Gunners looked to be in control of the game and were unlucky not to be in front through chances from Alex Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Kieran Tierney.
But the game then completely turned after Granit Xhaka's ridiculous red card on the hour mark. Soon later, Mikel Arteta's side conceded their first goal from a set piece this season when Aubameyang headed Ashley Westwood's corner into his own net.
There is serious pressure now on the Spaniard who has reportedly fallen out with several senior members of the Arsenal squad.
Here football.london takes a look at a few of the talking points from Arsenal's dismal defeat on a cold night in north London.
Arteta disciplinary issue once again
For the sixth time since Mikel Arteta took over last December, Arsenal were reduced to ten men following a complete lapse in discipline from Granit Xhaka.
Of course there comes a point where the Gunners manager cannot be blamed for the Swiss international's decision to needlessly grab Ashley Westwood by the throat. If this was a stand alone incident you might be able to say the blame lay solely at the player's door.
Back in July Arteta announced that he would be taking a stand on discipline within the club following Eddie Nketiah's red card against Leicester. "it’s something that we have to improve because (when we go down to ten men) we give the opponent a big advantage” he said.
Whatever he's trying it clearly hasn't worked. Mohamed Elneny was lucky not to see red as well just minutes later and it is clear that Arsenal have a discipline problem.
Aside from the red cards though, this season alone Dani Ceballos has been involved in two scuffles with Eddie Nketiah and David Luiz that have crossed the line, while Willian took an unapproved flight to Dubai despite COVID concerns. Arteta has an issue in getting the players to adhere to the 'non-negotiables' he set out at the start of his tenure in the job. If he doesn't address this soon, it could be the downfall of him.
Strange team selection
A proportion of the blame should also go for Arteta for fielding players like Xhaka in the first place. The Swiss international was hopeless against Tottenham last week and has reportedly had his head turned by interest from other clubs.
Out of form players like Alex Lacazette and Willian were chosen yet again in what is increasingly appearing to look like blind faith from the Gunners boss.
When asked to explain his decision the Spaniard simply replied "we tried to pick a team that gives us the best possibility to win the game."
With highly rated youngsters Emile Smith Rowe, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Joe Willock and Eddie Nketiah all on the bench, and Folarin Balogun not even in the squad, can he genuinely claim that to be the case?
Of course the Arsenal manager knows his team better than anybody else, but surely he now can see that changes need to be made very quickly.
Chances missed again
To be fair to Arteta his side did put in a much improved display from the one at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last weekend.
There were still plenty of crosses but this time a few of them actually led to decent chances. Lacazette, Tierney, Aubameyang, Bukayo Saka and Rob Holding all could have had goals on another day.
As it was, an Arsenal player did manage to have the ball in the back of the net. Unfortunately for the Gunners Aubameyang headed into his own goal instead.
On another day the Gunners could have been two or three up by the time Granit Xhaka self-destructed and Arteta will do well to remind his team of that.
Whether they will be able to replicate that against a very impressive-looking Southampton side, who will actually look to come out and press Arsenal, remains to be seen.
Time for a change in formation?
Throughout Mikel Arteta's reign as Arsenal manager the only two formations he has fielded have been a 3-4-3 or a 4-2-3-1. Both have been tried in the Premier League this season, although neither have worked.
This however, is despite the fact that the Spaniard insisted in an interview that his preferred formation going forward would be a 4-3-3.
“We want to move to a 4-3-3" he said, "But for that, you need a lot of specificity in every position but now in five or six positions, we don’t have it."
Perhaps it's time for Arteta to go for it and try the formation he has always insisted he wants his sides to play from now on. The team is desperate need of a shake up similar to the manner we saw after the Brighton loss last season. New tactics could be the perfect catalyst for change.
Playing a 4-3-3 would potentially allow the more box-to-box elements of young players like Joe Willock and Ainsley Maitland-Niles to come to the fore, while offering third man runs to make up for the lack of creativity the Gunners have in the final third. At this point what has the Spaniard got to lose.
