Pochettino backs Boruc after mistake

Mauricio Pochettino has given Artur Boruc a vote of confidence after the goalkeeper cost Southampton the opening goal against Arsenal.

Boruc’s attempt to turn away from Olivier Giroud saw him tackled by the French striker, who went on to score the opener in last weekend’s 2-0 defeat, but the Polish goalkeeper remains first choice.

The 41-year-old instead chose to portion the blame on the whole team rather than just Boruc, and is keen to move on from the incident.

Boruc has kept six clean sheets in the Premier League this season and Pochettino has seen the 33-year-old step up his efforts so they can get back to winning ways.

“He’s worked very hard during the week, he’s shown an amazing effort,” the Argentinian said.

“It’s clear that every single player is conscious of their own performance and they will want to analyse their own performance, as I’m sure he’s done.

“But we go about it naturally, we forget about what’s happened and move on.

“It’s clear that it wasn’t the best decision that he took in that moment, but as a team as well we did not offer a variety of choices in terms of Artur’s options in terms of passing the ball, so as a team we did not do as we should have done in that sense.”

Southampton face Chelsea on Sunday and will hope to replicate their 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge from last season.