Alan Shearer has hammered Arsenal’s defence, suggesting that Southampton targeted the backline on Sunday because they knew it was a weakness.

Shearer wasn’t happy with the Gunners’ defending, with Arsenal having fallen to another early goal, and believes the Saints had deliberately targeted the three centre-backs.

“They (Southampton) identified weaknesses in that Arsenal backline and they went after Arsenal. You think the way Arsenal defended for the goals they conceded against Manchester United that starting today’s game they’d be up and aware of their mistakes.

“And if you’re wondering why they’ve conceded 32 goals in 2017 away from home and only Watford, Stoke and West Ham have a worse record, this is why when you look at the way they defended.

“It’s a throw in, they’d scored from. Charlie Austin, he’s the goalscorer. He first of all wins the flick on then look at how many Arsenal players he runs past – six. He’s won the throw in. He ends up behind the Arsenal line.

“It’s a hell of a finish, a hell of a move but it’s terrible from that back line. Second half, Arsène said they were a lot better? No they weren’t.”

The Gunners were pretty terrible defensively in the opening exchanges, and it was very reminiscent of the United game in that respect. They could’ve easily been two goals down in the first 10 minutes, and that would’ve left them with a mountain to climb.

However, contrary to what Shearer said, Arsenal did improve significantly from that point on. Southampton only had one shot on goal for the remainder of the match, and never really threatened to add to their lead in the way they had early on.

Of course, that doesn’t matter if you’re already losing from the first few minutes. If the Gunners want to beat West Ham, they’d be much better off trying to keep a clean sheet for 10 minutes, and working from there.