Mikel Arteta was in confident mood going into yesterday’s game against the Champions Liverpool, and was calling it a must-win game if Arsenal were going to make a concerted effort to get into the top six before the end of the season. ” We need to get on a run of winning matches and the only way to do it is to start against Liverpool. We don’t have any margin and we have to win that game.” he said.
But sadly, he must have forgotten to tell the players and they totally and utterly failed to turn up. All the possession was conceded to Liverpool, but we managed to keep the Reds at bay until half-time and we went into the break at 0-0.
The second half was much worse, with Jota finally breaking the deadlock halfway through the second half, with Mo Salah quickly doubling their lead.
Of course it wouldn’t be an Arsenal game without the usual brain fart in defence and Gabriel gifted a third goal to that man Jota again.
Mikel Arteta seemed at a loss to understand the performance and simply offered the fane an apology. “First of all, I apologise to our supporters for the display and the show that we saw today that I am very, very disappointed about,” he told Arsenal.com. “When you don’t do the basics right against a team like Liverpool, you don’t have any chance even to complete in the game, which is exactly what happened.
“It’s unacceptable. At that level it’s unacceptable. To not be at 100% is unacceptable to our people and for a lot of work that we put in, so what happened today is nowhere near what we want to do.
It gives you a really bad gut feeling. It’s a big shock to the system that one. We weren’t expecting that one the way they were training, the way they’ve been playing, but I can put it down to the level that Liverpool played today, which was really, really high as well. But ours was so far [below], so bad – it was unacceptable.
“Talking on the pitch, outside the pitch, in the dressing room, in front of the cameras is easy,” Arteta added. “We have to put our head down, take all the shots and the criticism because we deserve that and show a different face on Thursday.”