Southampton seem to suffer with the same problem in recent weeks, and yesterday’s defeat at the Emirates Stadium was no exception.
It’s been a common trend in recent weeks that the Saints begin on the front foot, but ultimately are unable to kill off their opponents and are made to pay later on.
The same thing happened again at Arsenal – with the hosts going ahead against the run of play before they doubled their lead moments later.
'First goal changed the momentum'
And boss Ralph Hasenhuttl was left lamenting familiar woes after the 3-0 loss in the capital.
“I think the first goal changed the momentum completely,” he told southamptonfc.com.
“We had, until that moment, absolute control of the game, and kept them in their half.
“But it’s always the same – if you don’t take something out of this momentum and you concede the first chance and the first goal, then it is definitely a booster for them. That’s normal.
“We are coming into these situations, but the output is not enough. This is what you need in such a game – a good start, score goal, but even then it is tough because they have quality.
'The output is not enough'
“After the second they get even more comfortable – they have the quality and this is what they have shown today; the quality to let you run, to play through your lines, and then it’s getting tough. This is not surprising.
“When they are coming in their flow it is tough to defend – this is a top-six team, and we have seen that this is not so easy to defend this quality.”
Alexandre Lacazette applied the finish to a flowing counter-attack after 21 minutes to put the Gunners ahead, with Martin Odegaard heading home to double their lead six minutes later.
With a mountain to climb, Gabriel added a third in the second half to condemn the Saints to a sixth defeat of the season.
Armstrong and Broja worries
And to make matters worse for Hasenhuttl’s men, both Adam Armstrong and Armando Broja were forced off during the match through injury – having already been without fellow striker Che Adams.
The Austrian added: “We must have a look at how serious these injuries are, but it’s becoming a time of the season where we have seen all the teams are having some injuries.
“We have a big squad, but with three games coming up again this week there are a lot of things to work on.
“We have to play different from today, that is for sure. In every part of our game we have to be stronger, I think, and we have to go again.”