Before the season started, nobody at Arsenal sat down and decided the Carabao Cup was the priority. Nobody circled the FA Cup quarter-final in red and called it the destination. The objectives were always the Premier League and the Champions League — two competitions that remain entirely within our reach this morning, nine points clear at the top and a Champions League quarter-final against Sporting in Lisbon on Tuesday.

Shea Charles scored in the 85th minute at St Mary's. Ross Stewart had put Southampton ahead in the 35th, Viktor Gyokeres equalised from the bench in the 68th, and then Charles, another substitute, picked out the bottom corner on a Southampton counter to send the Championship side to Wembley. It was a good goal. Southampton deserved it. Tonda Eckert's side have been on a 14-game unbeaten run and they showed every bit of that momentum against a makeshift Arsenal side that had no business being considered the finished product last night.

And that is the point the back pages will miss entirely this morning.

Declan Rice was not on the pitch. Bukayo Saka was not on the pitch. Leandro Trossard was not on the pitch. William Saliba started but came on only after Gabriel Magalhaes limped off with what appeared to be a right leg problem — a genuine concern heading into Tuesday. Martin Zubimendi started on the bench. Viktor Gyokeres, our leading scorer, started on the bench.

This was a squad managed for a season, not a squad that froze in front of a Championship side. The players Arteta trusts most with the games that decide titles and European campaigns were either rested, injured, or introduced carefully to protect their minutes. That is not mismanagement. That is exactly what a manager chasing the two hardest trophies in the game should be doing in early April.

Theo Walcott, speaking to the BBC after the final whistle, said Arteta's touchline energy transmitted "nervous energy" into the players. That is a pundit looking for a narrative after a result. The same pundits who spent January and February constructing a quadruple dream are now constructing a collapse. The quadruple was never our story. The treble was never our story. They were media products, built for content, and we should never have been expected to carry them.

Arsenal dominated possession, created the cleaner chances across the 90 minutes, and were beaten by two moments of individual quality from a side in exceptional form. Stewart's opener came from a Ben White misjudgement under a James Bree cross — White allowed the ball to drop to Stewart, who finished coolly past Kepa Arrizabalaga. It was an error, and it cost us.

Gyokeres' equaliser was the response this squad is capable of. Gabriel slipped a precise pass through to Havertz, who laid it across for Gyokeres to finish sharply. For 22 minutes after that goal, Arsenal looked the more likely side to score next. Then Charles arrived with five minutes remaining, fed by Tom Fellows on a counter, and that was the evening.

Gabriel's injury is the result that actually matters most from last night. If the Brazilian centre-back misses the first leg in Lisbon on Tuesday, Arteta faces a defensive reshuffle at the worst possible moment. That is the story. Not the FA Cup exit.

In three days we travel to the Estádio José Alvalade for the first leg of a Champions League quarter-final against Sporting CP. In 15 days we play Manchester City at the Etihad in a Premier League fixture that could move us to within touching distance of a first title since 2004. Those are the games this season will be remembered by.

Losing the Carabao Cup final to Manchester City hurt. Losing the FA Cup quarter-final to Southampton hurts. But we have lost two of our lowest-priority objectives while remaining perfectly positioned to win the two that matter most. The Premier League lead has not shrunk. The Champions League draw remains favourable. Arteta said after the match that the squad had moments they should have capitalised on, and he is right — but he also said "now we have to show what we are made of." That is the correct framing.

The media will spend the week writing about bottle and wobbles and whether this squad has the character. We have heard that before. The answer comes on Tuesday night in Lisbon.