GUSTAVO POYET has been taken aback by the level-headed reaction to Sunderland’s record-breaking 8-0 defeat at Southampton, and admitted his job would be in jeopardy had he been managing at most other clubs.

Five days have passed since the Black Cats slumped to their worst ever Premier League defeat, and Poyet admits he has still not come to terms with events on the south coast.

Yet while there was understandable anger in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s humiliation, there has been little in the way of sustained criticism from supporters, with Poyet revealing he was still warmly received when he ate at restaurants in Sunderland this week.

The players’ decision to refund the price of last weekend’s match tickets has helped take some of the sting out of their capitulation, but Poyet concedes he is fortunate to be working in an environment where hysteria is generally absent.

“In another country, maybe an 8-0 defeat means that you lose your job,” said the Uruguayan. “In England, that is not the case – at the moment.

“I don’t know if it’s that the supporters accept or understand. I don’t accept it and I can’t understand that you can lose 8-0. But the fans seem to have taken it on the chin. I’ve seen similar in the past from them.

“I haven’t seen other teams lose 8-0 and nothing happens, and the manager is still the manager and the players still play. Where everybody moves on, which is fine. I can tell you that I haven’t seen that anywhere other than here.”

Nevertheless, having dissected Saturday’s catalogue of errors in a lengthy team meeting at the Academy of Light on Tuesday morning, Poyet is determined there will be a marked positive reaction when Arsenal visit Wearside tomorrow.

The former Chelsea midfielder readily concedes he is still in a state of shock following “the worst day” of his managerial career, and the first half of this week was spent trying to avoid flashbacks to events at St Mary’s while simultaneously attempting to list and account for the things that went wrong.

He didn’t put on an extra training session for his players on Sunday – “If I’m honest, I didn’t want to see them” – instead preferring to lock himself away as he attempted to digest what he had witnessed 24 hours earlier.

“I had to watch the game to choose the clips to show the players,” he said. “There were too many, so I needed to put the most important ones together, the ones that were the basics.

“I know people think, ‘Well he’s getting paid anyway’, but it’s about embarrassment. I didn’t go out the whole of Sunday, I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to see anyone because it’s true, it’s embarrassing.

“It’s a mix of emotions. I was very disappointed and unpleasantly surprised. Why? Because I swear I didn’t expect that to happen to me. The way we were, the way we defended, the way the players were on the pitch, the type of group that we want the players to be – everything. If you put it together, you would say you’re not going to lose 8-0, but I was wrong.

“I think the most I conceded (as a player) was six, but that was against the dream team of Barcelona. I can tell you they could really play. I don’t want to think about what would have happened if we had been playing them on Saturday, it might have finished 25-0.”

Poyet is still pondering his starting line-up for tomorrow’s game and, in a break with his normal routine, he will wait until the morning of the match before revealing his selection.

One school of thought suggests that changes are needed to guard against a repeat of last weekend’s failings, while an alternative approach would see Poyet name all 11 players again and instruct them to atone for their errors.

“For the first time in many months, whatever I want to do, I can,” he said. “I have complete freedom. I can forget about everything I’ve done before and just pick the team I want because I don’t think there’s anyone who can disagree with whatever I choose.”

At least a couple of changes are anticipated, but despite Vito Mannone contributing to at least three Southampton goals with routine goalkeeping errors, the Italian will remain in place tomorrow.

“Normally, I don’t change the keeper when they have a bad game,” said Poyet. “If it’s two bad games then he starts to have a problem, but at the moment there’s no decision to make.”

Having trained with Sunderland’s first-team squad for the last fortnight, French full-back Anthony Reveillere signed a short-term deal until the end of the season yesterday.

With Billy Jones injured, the 34-year-old will go straight into the squad for tomorrow’s game, and with Santiago Vergini having been one of the worst offenders at Southampton, Reveillere could even find himself thrust straight into the starting line-up.

“It’s difficult to maintain yourself at his age when you’re not playing,” said Poyet. “But he looks good and when we did all the physical tests, he was just about as good as anyone in the squad.

“We’ll wait for the clearance to see whether he’s involved. He’s going to be in the squad that’s for sure if we get clearance because we’re short of defenders. He’ll be involved – whether he starts or not is another matter.”