'It's unacceptable to lose like this'

Arsene Wenger is the first to admit it: this has been “a horrible week”.

As if that 2-1 defeat at Everton wasn’t bad enough, the same story unfolded at Manchester City on Sunday. We were a goal up in both games, but ended up with nothing.

“It’s terrible because it didn’t look like we could lose this game [at City],” Wenger told Arsenal Player.

“Then in the second half we come out straight away and we concede an offside goal. It’s not enough because after we concede another offside goal and I think it’s unacceptable to lose games like that.

“In the recent weeks we have been absolutely punished by wrong decisions but we can only look at ourselves. I think we dropped physically as well in the second half and maybe the equaliser gave them some courage and we dropped.

“We came back in the last 20 minutes but they killed the game well. They stayed down, they have a lot of experience and we have to live with that. I am, of course, extremely disappointed but we have to respond to a horrible week and as well some horrible decisions.”

Back-to-back home games against West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace are next on the agenda, before a midweek trip to Bournemouth. Nine points from those three could reshape the Premier League table.

“Let’s focus on the next game,” said Wenger. “We have had a very disappointing week, we have played four times out of five away from home and we have to respond, recover physically and respond quickly.”