Arsenal suffered a shock home defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday and Mikel Arteta’s reaction was telling as his side lacked energy throughout.
MORE — Recap, video highlights, reaction
This was a deserved defeat as Bournemouth looked dangerous and sharper for the majority of the 90 minutes, while Arsenal looked nervous and the pressure got to them.
Below is the latest Mikel Arteta reaction from the Emirates Stadium, as the Arsenal manager looked incredibly frustrated.
Mikel Arteta reaction
“Extremely disappointing, obviously,” Arteta told TNT Sports in the UK. “It’s a big punch on the face and it is about how we react now.”
“Credit to them [Bournemouth] for what they have done,” Arteta said when asked about a poor display by his team and the Cherries playing well. “It’s a team that hasn’t lost that for 11 games it’s for a reason because they do a lot of things right and when when we had this situation in the first half a lot of opportunities when we break the press we regained the ball to have open spaces we were far from efficient. The first chance I think the first opportunity they have to attack the box is a deflection we have a really bad defending action and it causes the goal. That’s obviously emotionally something that we have to deal with. We try to recover from there, try to push them, score the goal from the penalty. In the second half you expect a different game but yeah we did a lot of strange things today, I would say.”
Asked if it came as a surprise to him to see his side doing strange things, Arteta agreed: “Yeah. We’ve been very consistent. It can happen. This is football. Some days you have to give credit to the opposition and what they do and the way they capitalize, I don’t know how many shots they had, the way they capitalize on our actions and errors, and we were far from the level today.”
Asked how much it is hurting Arsenal’s players in the dressing room, Arteta didn’t mince his words.
“A lot, and it has to,” Arteta admitted. “It has to hurt. You have to take it on the chin. There are no grey areas now. You stand up and go for the fight or you are out. That is it. That is what this level is going to require now.”
When asked if this was the biggest week of his managerial career, and for the players, Arteta didn’t shy away from the importance of games at home against Sporting Lisbon and the huge trip to Manchester City next weekend.
“It’s a huge week. There is a lot at stake,” Arteta said. “We are still in a really good position in both competitions but we need to do better. That is certain.”