According to Mirror Football, Arsenal star Bernd Leno believes that the mentality of the Gunners stars was the team’s downfall against Manchester City.
Freddie Ljungberg’s men were defeated 3-0 by the Premier League champions, after conceding an early goal, we barely managed to get a foothold in the game.
Leno told Sky Sports after the clash that the Gunners ‘miss intensity’ at moments like this added that the team aren’t fresh in their ‘minds’.
Arsenal’s mentality and intensity have been a major talking point since the north London outfit began to decline in recent years, the team can’t seem to distance themselves from this criticism.
Here’s what the Germany international had to say on our mindset costing us:
“After four or five minutes the game was done. I think in the first half we deserved this result. In the second half we couldn’t touch the ball and also couldn’t create the chances,”
“At the moment we have to say there is a gap between [the top] teams. We have the quality but when you see the games we miss intensity, we are not fresh in our minds.”
“It is good we have a week to work a little bit and speak about this situation, we have to change something in our minds.”
Leno has been one of the few Arsenal players that has actually performed well this season. The 27-year-old has made the most saves of any keeper in the Premier League with 73 so far this term.
Read More: Alan Shearer is the latest pundit to slam our defence.
Whilst this an impressive personal stat for the German shot-stopper, this really highlights just how unfit for purpose our defence currently is.
Keepers that play for side’s in the bottom half of the league tend to dominate these rankings, which suggests that our team is actually one of the worst in the top-flight when it comes to preventing shots on goal.