Micah Richards has blamed Mikel Arteta for Arsenal’s “very poor” loss to Southampton, while Alan Shearer has questioned their title credentials.

Arsenalhave suffered back-to-back losses, with the defeats to Man City and Southampton seeing them lose the Carabao Cup final and exit the FA Cup.

This has quickly ended talk of a Quadruple, and it remains to be seen whether the Gunners have the mentality to get over the line in the Premier League and/or Champions League.

Artetafielded a makeshift XI for his side’s FA Cup quarter-final against Southampton and was punished. Shea Charles netted a late winner after Viktor Gyokeres cancelled out Ross Stewart’s opener for the Saints.

And Richards thinks Arteta was wrong to field a weakened side against Southampton as you “have to play your best team”.

He also revealed the “most disappointing thing” about the loss to Southampton.

“You have to play your best team,” Richards said on BBC One.

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“There is going to be so much noise around it. With Arsenal against Man City you can get beat in a final. Tonight, you asked me if I would play (David) Raya. I don’t think it was anything to do with him in terms of them losing, but you have to play your best team.

“It was only a couple of weeks ago people were saying Arsenal could do the quadruple, now they are in two competitions. Man City, after what they did earlier on [beating Liverpool 4-0], look like they are going to push them all the way for the league and the Champions League – anyone can win that.

“The most disappointing thing for me was watching them and their attitude.

“They have been excellent defensively, in transitions they have been very good, the shape has been good and the effort has been as good as anyone. For them to turn up the way they did today, I thought was very poor.”

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Fellow pundit Shearer insisted that Southampton deserved to beat Arsenal after he previously predicted the impact of a defeat.

‘”This is not a fluke,” Shearer said on Southampton beating Arsenal.

“Victory went to the better side on the night.”

Speaking to Betfair before the match, Shearer added: “After Arsenal got knocked out of the FA Cup, it will be incredibly tough for them, mentally, to go on and achieve what they want to achieve.”

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