The Republic of Ireland international briefly reflects on his own performances in the mixed zone at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, during his debut Premier League season. Bazunu is only 21 years old but he has played every single minute of the league campaign following his summer move to St Mary’s from Manchester City. It is less than an hour since his side had shipped two goals in the last three minutes of regulation time to give up two valuable points in a 3-3 draw with the league leaders. Bukayo Saka’s equaliser was tapped in from Bazunu’s initial parry into a central area – not the first time that has happened this season but the most forgivable given the speed of the initial shot.
Gavin Bazunu said: “It’s obviously the top league in the world and I’m a young goalkeeper but I relish every moment of it. I keep a level head about everything because It’s the only way you can get through it, you have to keep confidence in yourself. I can’t speak on behalf of the other players but for myself, with all the minutes I’ve had and experiences good and bad, I’m taking every bit of it for these last few games.”
All goalkeeping metrics point to the fact Saints could have done with a more viable number two option to offer competition to young Bazunu throughout this season. But the hope remains that the Irishman will be an improved product year-on-year, having never played above League One before the start of this term. What league the team will play in is still yet to be decided. Following Saturday’s Leicester City victory, even a win at Emirates Stadium would have kept Saints bottom. They remain four points from safety with six games to play and a visit from AFC Bournemouth – the team Bazunu’s first clean sheet came against – is up next.
Gavin Bazunu added: “I think the immediate feeling is disappointment at not picking up all three points but going into Thursday there are so many positives we can take. We have come to the league leaders and scored three goals, been ruthless and shown the fighting spirit that we did. We scored some great goals and showed fight and desire but we need to be as ruthless in the remaining games. We’ve now got to look at the performance we put in and take the positives into Thursday, we’ve got to be confident with our ruthlessness and spirit.”
Much of that ruthlessness looks like it could be coming through 20 year old January signing Charly Alcaraz – who has already scored three in the Premier League. It was the Argentine who opened the scoring beyond Aaron Ramsdale and assisted with a splitting pass for Theo Walcott and the side’s second.
Gavin Bazunu said: “It’s great, all season we’ve been a great team in the attacking phase but we’ve just not taken our chances. In other games, we have not had the luck fall our way. With the quality we have up front, we’ve been able to be more ruthless. I think if we can gain this confidence and our attacking players can find that clinical edge we’ll have no problem in the remaining games this season.”
