Ruben Selles admitted everyone at Southampton is ‘hurting’ amid their position at the foot of the Premier League table.
Two wins in three league games at the end of February had looked to give Saints hope of avoiding the drop since Selles’ appointment.
But things quickly changed – with just two points from the next six games seeing the south coast club four points from safety with seven games to go.
And their next chance to pick up points couldn’t be any harder – a trip to an Arsenal side top of the league, and looking to prove a point after back-to-back draws.
'We are hurting - all of us'
Selles was asked if, following the home defeat to Crystal Palace last weekend, the players are feeling the same hurt the supporters are with an eleven year stay in the top-flight at threat.
“We are hurting – all of us,” he commented ahead of the trip to Emirates Stadium. “We are just putting in so much to try to change the situation.
“Every game that goes without a result is hard and we’re hurt. And this is something that we feel and people don’t need to misunderstand that everybody, when we lose, feels bad and everybody’s working hard.
“But the important thing is that the next day you wake up, you come here, we talk about it, we fix the mistakes and then we try to go once again and once again until the very end.”
There have been positives for Saints, after draws with Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur showing that they can compete with teams at the top end of the table.
But it’s against teams who are in and around them when they seem to come up short – with defeats to Leeds United, West Ham United and then Palace all seeing fellow relegation strugglers prevail with three points.
'I'm going to pick everybody up with me'
And in his pre-match press conference ahead of the Arsenal trip, Selles admitted it is his job to try and lift the team ahead of a difficult run-in.
“That’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to be here until the very last thing, whatever it is, and I’m going to pick everybody up with me,” he added.
“Putting in energy, putting in the knowledge that I have and the way that I know of how to do things. It’s not hard for me it’s just that right now I need to be sure that the people around me are still up.
“That’s a challenge but I can do it and I think the technical staff are doing a fantastic job on that. Everybody’s responding well to that. We are not giving any signal inside that we can be broken.
'It's hard but we are all doing our best'
“People are working and still believe. It’s just one game and we know that we have to get something. We need to be more robust and more consistent. It’s hard but we are all doing our best.”
Ainsley Maitland-Niles will miss the trip to North London as part of the terms of his loan from Arsenal, whilst Selles also confirmed a couple of players continue to be sidelined.
“Che Adams is still out with a calf injury,” he confirmed. “Mohammed Salisu is still out with his pelvic bone problem.
“Tino Livramento played 45 minutes for the B team last week as part of his recovery but still needs to test a little bit more and Juan Larios is still out with a long-term injury.
"The one that has recovered is Mislav Orsic who has been training with us during the week.”
