SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 16: Bernd Leno of Arsenal reaches for the ball before Charlie Austin of Southampton heads the ball to score his team's third goal during the Premier League match between Southampton FC and Arsenal FC at St Mary's Stadium on December 16, 2018 in Southampton, United Kingdom. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

Arsenal’s loss to Southampton was a frustrating effort, but it’s nothing more than a cop-out to blame Bernd Leno for the loss, so don’t even think about it.

Arsenal‘s 23-match unbeaten run came to an end at pesky St. Mary’s, where Southampton, under the tutelage of new manager Ralph Hasenhüttl, put in a smashing effort against a battered Gunners’ defense to break the hearts of more than a few Gooners.

There will be questions asked of this defense, and many will also look to extend that line of questioning to Bernd Leno, but I’m here to go ahead and see off any of those questions that I can. Because, simply put, Leno does not deserve the blame that you’re thinking of heaping on him.

Let’s start where the blame will begin – the third goal. With two fullbacks leaving the theater of play early, Laurent Koscielny and Granit Xhaka were left alone to deal with Charlie Austin and Shane Lon, respectively. Xhaka did a great job stepping up to Long, who sent in an early, looping ball.

At that moment, Leno has two choices to pick between and about a split second to choose. Option 1: He can hold his line and try to stop Charlie Austin from heading home from about two yards out. Not likely. Austin had already beaten Maitland-Niles (a subject for another day) and Koscielny had been bad in the air all day.

Option 2: He can try to get to the ball before Austin’s head does.

Leno chose the right option. He made a split-second decision and went for the ball, not leaving it up to Austin’s ability to find the back of the net from two-yards out.

And Leno almost got there. If you look at the replay, I actually can’t quite see how he didn’t get there. It looked like there was about a millimeter of space between finger tip and ball. As such, the only thing I can blame Leno for is for the last time he clipped his fingernails, because any added length may have diverted that ball enough.

It was the right decision and the right execution, but yet again, he was stranded on an island by a mixture of a perfect ball and poor defending, this time from his fullbacks. He did everything right, except have about an inch extra on his wingspan.

And if you really want to blame that one on him (which you’d be 100% wrong if you do), then consider how he kept the game level when Yoshida’s rocket header was stoned by Leno.

Leno was isolated a lot of the day. Southampton created a ton of chances and he handled them as best as he could. Somehow the Saints managed three perfect balls and the Arsenal defense managed to stand strong against none of them.

At the end of the day, I’d want Leno to do the exact same thing in future situations. Hopefully though, he won’t have to.