Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has spoken to the press after his side’s 2-1 loss to Fulham at Craven Cottage, including updates on Oleksandr Zinchenko and what was missing for the Gunners
What’s your view on that game?
It was a difficult and sad day. That’s how I’d summarise it. With the consistency we’ve showed, we had a chance to be top of the table after 20 games. We haven’t performed well enough to be able to win the game. We lost a game that we deserved to win three days ago; today was a completely different scenario.
We weren’t good enough. We weren’t good enough in ball possession, we gave too many balls away. we didn’t have enough rhythm, enough threat. Defensively we were second best. We could not control the direct play. It was so easy for them to win that first and second ball and have the opportunity to run. Then we conceded two goals like we did against West Ham and when you do that in this league it’s going to be very difficult to win.
When you don’t change the result they didn’t work. It didn’t work in the first half or the second half. Throughout 100 minutes we were never at the level to win the game.
We weren’t as efficient as we could have been. We did not have enough ball speed, movement, or threat. We threw away ball after ball. We were regaining it, but when we earned it back, we gave it away, which is the most perilous time to do so. It’s very tough to win a game if you don’t have consistent momentum, don’t have a threat in the final third, and surrender two goals like we did today. We didn’t deserve to win the game, plain and simple.
In this league, if you lose a game, you lose points. We dropped two points at Anfield, but we played well. We lost three points to West Ham despite a strong performance. Today, however, is a different story. That is why we are disappointed since we were nowhere near the levels required across the 90.
We certainly need that reset after today because that’s going to be in our tummy for a few days. I repeat, the game against West Ham feels very different, so you can move on. It’s football, it can happen. What happened today cannot happen again because if you do that we will never have the chance to be where we want to be. Today could have been a beautiful day to end the year that’s for sure. But these are the margins and you have to try and find the bar. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror because today’s performance is the worst we have played all season that’s for sure.
Are you more worried by this display than West Ham?
For sure. The other one, we didn’t put the ball in the net and they scored the way they did. It’s OK. Today the overall performance was more worrying.
How’s Zinchenko?
We don’t know. He felt something in his calf. We will scan him tomorrow and see how far he’s going to miss games.
Was that mentally painful because you expected a response?
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