Wenger confident Arsenal will bounce back

Arsene Wenger has backed Arsenal to bounce back from a heavy defeat to Southampton when they face Bournemouth on Monday.

The north-London side suffered a resounding 4-0 loss at St Mary’s Stadium on Saturday, missing the chance to overtake Leicester City at the Premier League summit.

Despite the defeat, Wenger is backing his players to show their mental strength and respond with a positive result against Eddie Howe’s team next time out.

“These players have fantastic spirit and they will show that in 48 hours,” Wenger said.

“We want to respond from disappointment. I trust my players to respond well on Monday.

“Tonight we were not good enough to win the game. We can’t dwell on that too much.”

Shane Long scored twice as Ronald Koeman’s side surged to victory on Saturday, but Wenger felt the referee allowed the striker to get away with several fouls.

“I must say they were sharper than us in the tackles. We cannot master the referee’s decisions but we can master our behaviour,” he said.

“I felt we were physically not at our best. Long made the game very physical and got away with a lot.

“We had to come out and take many risks and they looked sharp on the counter-attack.”