DETERMINED Nathan Tella admitted Saints had to go “back to the drawing board” following their 3-0 humbling at Arsenal.

Despite early chances for the visitors at Emirates Stadium, Saints were left to ponder a fifth game without a win in the Premier League after Mikel Arteta’s Gunners seized control of the contest.

Reacting to the game as a whole, Tella told the Daily Echo: “It was a tough day.

“The first 20 minutes or so we matched them. They couldn’t really get out and they struggled. They struggled to deal with our pressing.

“Once they scored the first goal, that just made it difficult for ourselves to get back into the game.

“We obviously created a few chances in the second half, but we’ve just got to put them away or I’ve got to put them away.

“We’ve just got to go back to the drawing board, start again and take what we’ve learned.

“These games are always fine margins. If we score one of the chances we created, then it’s a different game.

“Then the same with them, if they don’t score one of their chances they go in with a different team talk at half-time.

“That’s all on us, we’ve got to hold our hands up. We’ve got to show what we’re about and we weren’t able to stamp our authority on the game, which was quite disappointing.”

Defeat left Saints 16th in the Premier League table, with just three wins from their opening 16 league contests.

“We know they (Arsenal) are a team that have got quality on the ball and they showed that,” said Tella.

"Especially that period in the second half where we couldn’t get the ball and we couldn’t get out.

“Nothing was going our way in that period. But that’s what happens when you play against quality teams.

“They do that. They make us run, they make us work hard and there’s no reason why we can’t do that to teams, we’ve just got to look at that, take that on to the next game.”

Saints make the trip to Crystal Palace in the top flight on Wednesday.