Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, has apologised to club’s supporters for his team’s “unacceptable” performance in the 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace.
The Gunners’ top-four hopes took a significant dent at Palace, a result which leaves Tottenham in fourth place after the Premier League weekend.
The Gunners do have a game in hand on their north London rivals but this was an out-of-character performance from Arteta’s side, as first-half goals from Jean-Philippe Mateta and Jordan Ayew and a second-half Wilfried Zaha penalty handed fantastic Palace the points.
Arteta, who was missing left-back Kieran Tierney with a knee injury picked up with Scotland after playing in both of their recent friendlies, criticised his team’s performance, admitting they did not compete physically with Palace.
He said: “Congratulations to Palace for the game they played but we made it impossible for ourselves with the way we competed.
“You have to be physical and run and then you earn the right to play. We were really inconsistent on the ball and that is unacceptable.
“We were poor, especially in the first half. I apologise to our supporters. We didn’t have the presence today or the composure to dominate the situation so that is what I’m most annoyed with. Some days you are not there and you are late all the time. They got on top of it and had a good atmosphere and we could not get out.
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“When we had the big chances we didn’t score to give ourselves the best chance to get back in the game. First of all we need to put our hands up and get the criticism we deserve. Then we accept it, look ourselves in the mirror and look to the next game. This was not good enough.
“We have to face the challenge and the opportunity is in our hands. We have to be honest with ourselves and support each other.
“From the beginning we were not at the races. When you come here you have to compete, you have to win duels and second balls and be aggressive and we were none of those and on top of that we were really poor on the ball.
“We tried in the second half, we had three or four big chances but the only half chance they had they got a penalty.
“It is time to accept the criticism, put your hand up and apologise because this performance was not good enough for this club, and then react. When everything goes well everyone wants to be there and be supportive,” Sky Sports quoted Arteta as saying.
On Tierney’s injury, Arteta admitted the situation did not look positive for the Scotland full-back. “He came back from international duty and he felt something wrong in his knee.
“We scanned it and there is some damage there. He’s seeing the specialist on Tuesday and hopefully we will know more but it’s not looking good,” Arteta said.
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