The manner of the defeat was particularly bruising for a side that had been urged by their manager to show relentless fighting spirit. Arteta had famously told fans in the build up to “bring your lunch, bring your dinner” to create a fortress-like atmosphere, but the players were unable to match that intensity on the pitch. The manager did not mince his words when describing the emotional fallout of the result in the dressing room.
“It’s a big punch in the face,” Arteta admitted. “That’s what I said to the boys. But now it’s about how we react to that because it’s game on. It’s going to require now a big spirit, a lot of fight, and very clear how we’re going to approach. No grey areas. We’re in, we’re out. We need to be very, very, very strong and determined to approach it in a different way than we did today, especially when the game wasn’t going our way.”