Every word from Mikel Arteta's post-Fulham presser

Mikel Arteta felt that we need to look at ourselves in order to improve following on from Sunday's 2-1 loss at Fulham.

The boss was asked about the defeat and the latest on Oleksandr Zinchenko's fitness in his post-match press conference.

Here is everything he had to say on the following subjects...

on our performance:
Painful, that’s how I’d sum it up. We had the opportunity to be top of the table after 20 games with the consistency that we’ve shown, and we haven’t managed to perform well enough to earn the right to win the game. Three days ago we lost a game that we fully deserved to win, but today was a very different story.

on the reason for our defeat:
We weren’t good enough, we simply weren’t good enough in ball possession – we gave so many balls away, we didn’t have enough rhythm, enough purpose, enough threat, and defensively we were second best. We couldn’t control them directly, it was so easy for them to win that first or second ball and have the opportunity to run; we conceded two exact goals like we did against West Ham, and if you do that in this league, it becomes really difficult to win.

on the substitutions we made in the 67th minute:
When you don’t change the result, they didn’t [work]. That’s for sure, it didn’t work in the first half, and it didn’t work in the second half. Throughout 100 minutes, we were never at the levels that we wanted to [be at].

on if the result was down to fatigue or any other reason:
No, we weren’t efficient enough. We didn’t have enough ball speed, enough movement, enough threat, and when we did that, we gave too many balls away. Not only when we were playing, but after regaining it straight away, which is the most dangerous moment to give away. When you do that, and you don’t have consistent momentum, we never got set in the final third in the right moments, and you concede two goals like we’ve done, then it becomes very difficult to win the game. Today we didn’t deserve to win the game, and that’s very clear and simple.

on dropping 11 points in December:
Because you drop games in this league, even if you win with 120 points but in Anfield we lost two points and had a big performance. We lost three points against West Ham but had a big performance. Today was a different story and that’s why we feel sad because we weren’t at the levels that we’ve been at for the other 19 games. That’s the reality.

on not having a league game for three weeks:
We certainly need a reset after today because that’s going to be in our tummy for a few days. The game against West Ham felt very different because you can move on, it can happen. What happened today cannot happen again. If you do that, you’re never going to have the chance to be where we want to be. Today it could have been a beautiful way to finish the year top of the league. These are the margins and you have to find the balance. It could have been the best day and it can be even the worst day because you have lost a game but we have to look at ourselves in the mirror because today is the worst game that we had this season, that’s for sure.

on if the performance today worries the boss more than West Ham:
Yes for sure. The other one, okay, we didn’t put the ball in the net. They scored the way they did. Today the performance was nowhere near.

on Oleksandr Zinchenko's fitness:
We don’t know. He felt something in his calf so he could not be available. We’ll scan him tomorrow and see how far he’ll go in these games.

on if the result hurt us more mentally while trying to get a response:
We didn’t. We all wanted that, we all hoped that. They are willing to play better and we all want it but today we didn’t manage to do that and that’s the pain that we have inside at the moment.

on if we need to freshen anything up:
We need to improve. We want to win games and in order to do that we have to improve with players, so that after 20 league games we have the chance to be the best in the league with these players. They are really good and we’re going to continue to go with them.