Arsenal boss Arteta laments ‘worst performance of season’

Mikel Arteta has branded Arsenal’s “painful” 2-1 defeat at Fulham as their “worst performance of the season.”

Bukayo Saka opened the scoring on 5 minutes, however objectives from Raúl Jiménez and Bobby De Cordova-Reid condemned the Gunners to a second consecutive Premier League defeat, which leaves them fourth within the desk.

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Arsenal face Liverpool within the FA Cup third spherical subsequent week however don’t play once more within the league till Jan. 20. Arteta mentioned his aspect have to appropriate course after one other disappointing show following on Thursday’s loss to West Ham.

“We certainly need that reset after today, because that’s going to be in our tummy for a few days,” Arteta mentioned.

“The game against West Ham feels very different, so you can move on. It’s football, it can happen.

“What occurred in the present day can not occur once more, as a result of should you try this, we are going to by no means have the possibility to be the place we wish to be. Today might have been a gorgeous day to finish the yr, that is for certain.

“But these are the margins, and you have to try and find the bar. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror, because today’s performance is the worst we have played all season.

“Painful and a tragic day, that is how I might sum it up. We had the possibility to be prime of the desk after 20 video games with the consistency that we have proven.

“We haven’t managed well enough to earn the right to win the game. Three days ago we lost a game that we deserved to win; today was a very different story.”

Midfielder Declan Rice insisted Arsenal wanted to be extra ruthless after Saka’s early opening aim.

“Today when you go 1-0 up you need to take more control, have more self-belief, more desire and the mentality needs to be better. We need to demand more from each other,” Rice mentioned on Sky Sports.

“I am not saying we didn’t do it, because we still tried to push for more. But ultimately Fulham have won the game and we have to look at why they won the game.

“Once we went 1-0 up, we needed to push on once more, go for extra. In this league there isn’t a room to mess up. There are so many good groups round you, and clearly we wish to be pushing up the highest finish of the desk. It is a tricky one to take in the present day.”