Arsenal players 'deserve a slap,' says enraged Arteta, following their defeat at the hands of Brighton
Mikel Arteta admitted he was'really upset' after Arsenal's defeat to Brighton, saying his team deserved a slap for suffering a huge blow in the top-four race.
After consecutive defeats to Brighton and Crystal Palace, the Gunners are on the verge of losing their UEFA Champions League qualification.
Brighton had gone seven games without a win before visiting the Emirates, but they completely outplayed Arsenal to win 2-1.
In the first half, Leandro Trossard curled home a fine finish to put Brighton ahead, and Arsenal's Gabriel Martinelli was denied an equalizer on the stroke of half-time after a four-minute VAR check.
Arsenal, however, failed to capitalize on their momentum and fell behind by two goals when Enock Mwepu rifled a shot past goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.
Martin Odegaard scored late on, but it was only a consolation as the Gunners fell three points behind fourth-placed Tottenham, who thrashed Aston Villa earlier in the evening.
'It's been a difficult week, especially today because we needed a reaction [to the loss at Crystal Palace].' Arteta stated.
'It came in the second half, which was too late; we need the courage and personality to play much better and raise the level in the first half.'
‘We made things extremely difficult for ourselves. We were sloppy, had no intention of attacking, were extremely imprecise, and didn't want to play forward.' We've demonstrated for many weeks how well we can play; it's been a difficult week, and we've lost some key players, but if you get what you want, not everything will be sunny.
'This is our team in good and bad times, especially when we lose.' There are many games left to play, but we must be concerned about that performance, particularly in the first half.'
When asked how Arsenal intends to respond to the two defeats, Arteta said, 'What happens is we criticize ourselves a lot again, get slapped again because we deserve it, and we get slapped again because we deserve it and we get slapped again because we deserve it and we get slapped again because we deserve it and we get slapped again because we deserve it and and then lift ourselves up.
'We know this road isn't going anywhere, especially considering where we want to go. We have everything to play for in the final eight games, and we must maintain that energy and visualize the beautiful challenge that awaits us, rather than sitting back and waiting to see what happens.'
'It's a fantastic performance from the players and an even better result; I'm delighted for them,' said Brighton manager Potter.
'We've had a difficult time, but we got back on track with a strong performance against Norwich and a really good one today.' It's clear how difficult it is to win games in the Premier League.' We had to hold on and suffer, but the end result was well worth it.
You must be disciplined and defensively strong in this situation. Arsenal is a team that is vying for a place in the Champions League.
'They are top quality, and we respected that; I didn't think we could hold on to a 1-0 lead; we needed to score again.' We're glad we did it, but we still had to suffer at the end.'
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