JAAP Stam believes his Reading FC side will learn from the experience of their 2-0 EFL Cup defeat at Arsenal.

Royals gifted Arsenal their opening goal when a poor Ali Al Habsi pass was punished by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

And though Stam's men kept faith with the new system, Oxlade-Chamberlain grabbed a second in the 78th minute to send Arsene Wenger's men into the quarter finals.

Stam admitted: "Sometimes you lose the ball and against a side like Arsenal, they’re deadly up front.

"If you play possession and have time on the ball, you need to be very accurate in your passing and in what you’re doing.

"We need to learn from that, and make decisions not to play that ball at times, look for a different solution.

"It’s never nice to lose. But today, I think you saw, we played against a very good side.

"We didn’t want to let them get into their game, because if we gave them time and space on they ball we knew they would make it difficult for us.

"We could have done a bit better. But when you play against a team like this, it’s a learning experience.

"For the young players who played, you need to learn from these games, pick things up from playing at this level and playing in stadiums like this.

"We went for it. The boys worked very hard for it. We created a couple of chances. But it’s never easy against Arsenal. And of course, they had chances to score too."

Reading, beaten 7-5 by Arsenal at the same stage of the competition in 2012, return to Championship action this Saturday when they host Nottingham Forest (3pm ko).

Stam's men ended a run of four league games without a win with a 1-0 victory at Rotherham last weekend.

And he is determined to reward the 5,000-plus Royals fans who travelled to the Emirates with three points.

"We want to do well against Arsenal, we want a result," declared the Dutchman.

"The fans have been here in their numbers today and they were great for us – hopefully they can do the same thing for us on the Saturday and hopefully we can get a result.

"We made some changes tonight because we need to look at the games we are playing next.

"Arsenal have a squad of 65 players contracted – we haven’t. So we need to look at what we’re doing and set our priorities.

"We need to look at what is most important to us as a club and I think the league is the most important thing for us – so we needed to make choices.

"Of course we want to get as far as we can in the cups, all the way to the final if we can, but certain players need to have a rest at certain times too.

"It was tempting to start with certain players tonight, but some have a few niggles after the last league game and we need to be careful with the players we have. We need to set our priorities.

"Because of these games in the cup, there has been no rest for us. But we are all looking forward to the games coming up and Nottingham Forest on Saturday."