Mikel Arteta defended his Arsenal gamers and refuted claims the stress of the top-four race had received to them after Monday’s 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace however conceded it was an “unacceptable” outcome.
The Gunners had been blown away by their previous captain Patrick Vieira, who noticed his facet go two up inside 24 minutes by Jean-Philippe Mateta and Jordan Ayew earlier than Wilfried Zaha’s late penalty added some deserved gloss.
A 5-1 win for Tottenham over Newcastle on Sunday noticed them leapfrog rivals Arsenal within the race for Champions League qualification however Arteta hit again at recommendations his younger facet are feeling the warmth following a chastening evening.
“Total, it’s unacceptable, we maintain our fingers up, me the primary one and apologise, we regroup, tomorrow is a brand new day and a brand new alternative to begin to put together towards Brighton,” the Gunners boss stated.
“No, as a result of the stress has been there for the final seven or eight weeks and we’re speaking on a regular basis in regards to the race and the highest 4 and that is whereas they’ve been performing extraordinarily effectively, getting outcomes and enjoying effectively.
“Immediately we didn’t carry out and it is so simple as that. We had been second greatest in each division, particularly within the first half.”
Arsenal had gained six of their earlier seven fixtures earlier than visiting Palace, however seemed unsettled from the outset and it was no shock when Mateta nodded in a Sixteenth-minute opener following Joachim Andersen’s header throughout aim.
It was 2-0 eight minutes later when Ayew collected Andersen’s move and bent his shot round Aaron Ramsdale and into the underside nook. Selhurst Park was rocking now however Arteta would have once more been left aghast on the defending of Gabriel Magalhaes and Nuno Tavares.
The second half was higher for the guests however Emile Smith Rowe and Martin Odegaard squandered wonderful openings earlier than Zaha’s glorious run gained a spot-kick, which he transformed to make it 3-0.
“No, we have now a sport in hand nonetheless,” Arteta replied when requested about whether or not Spurs being fourth had been a psychological blow to his workforce.
“We all know within the 9 video games quite a lot of issues are going to occur. We have now to play one another, we have now to play some large video games developing and we have now to deal with ourselves. The issue we had right now was not Spurs, it was us and what we did within the first half.”
To compound a poor evening for the Gunners, Thomas Partey limped off in what Arteta described as a “large concern” whereas Kieran Tierney is about for a scan on Tuesday that may decide the extent of a worrying knee harm.
On Tierney, Arteta stated: “He’s seeing the specialist tomorrow and we’ll know extra in regards to the extent of the harm however the feeling that he had wasn’t actually optimistic and what the scan confirmed both. We have now to attend and see what occurs.”
Victory for Palace moved them as much as ninth and prolonged their unbeaten run to seven matches forward of their journey to Wembley in a fortnight for an FA Cup semi-final towards Chelsea.
Eagles supervisor Vieira stated: “It was a very good efficiency. I feel from the primary minute we wished to place stress on them and never enable them time on the ball. We did that effectively.
“I feel there may be extra perception within the workforce, gamers perceive higher one another and begin to actually know one another as effectively.
“There’s a clear concept of how we need to play and right now we scored these targets in actually essential moments of the sport. I additionally suppose the way in which we managed the sport confirmed that we’re rising up as a workforce.”
Vieira spent 9 years as a participant at Arsenal and gained three Premier League titles at Highbury.
Requested if he felt sorry for damaging his previous membership’s hopes of a Champions League return, he replied: “No, our primary focus was to win the sport.”
Kaynak: briturkish.com
