Interview

Arteta - This is a moment to challenge each other

Mikel Arteta has challenged his team to put the defeat to Palace on Monday night behind them by the time we host Brighton this weekend.

The Gunners slumped to a 3-0 defeat to Patrick Vieira's side, despite an improved second half showing, and the boss has called on the side to pull together to get back to winning ways.

 

"Today we have to put our hands up and say it wasn't good enough," he said to Arsenal Media after the game. "Apologise, take the criticism and now show that when we talk about unity, especially in difficult moments, we lost two players, we lost the game, we're disappointed but there's still nine games to play.

 

"This is a moment now to challenge each other, to help each other and to believe again because on Saturday I'm sure we're going to play at the Emirates, it's going to be full and our supporters are going to be right behind the team.

 

"I had no indications [that this performance was coming],” he added.

 

"We came out, in the last two or three days we've trained really well, they were ready, they reacted, we discussed what we were expecting especially in the first 20 minutes here and what we had to do and we couldn't cope with that. It was one time, two times, three times in a row and we got into that bubble where I think we lost some confidence and we conceded a goal and we couldn't get out of that situation and it's just a shame."