Arsenal’s season is on the brink of collapse after two costly losses (Picture: Getty)
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has provided two reasons for his team’s decline in performances after they lost to Aston Villa and Bayern Munich back-to-back.
Two successive losses have put Arsenal’s season on the brink of collapse with their dreams of Champions League glory brutally ended by Bayern on Wednesday.
Defeat to Villa could end up costing Arsenal the Premier League title with Arteta’s team now two points behind leaders Manchester City with just six fixtures left.
Arteta has insisted Arsenal are fully focused on the top-flight title race ahead of Saturday’s trip to Wolves and has now explained why performances have dipped.
Quizzed if their decline in the second half of games was due to the fixture calendar, Arteta instead blamed himself as well as the quality of their opponents.
‘Sometimes it’s the opponent,’ Arteta said on Friday. ‘The opponent’s play very good and you have to congratulate them.
‘Sometimes it will be my fault as well, not changing anything or making the right call.
Mikel Arteta has blamed himself as one of the reasons for Arsenal’s dip (Picture: Getty)
‘Sometimes the players don’t have that spark. But what would have happened if we scored two, three or four goals in the first half against Aston Villa or two or three against Bayern like we did before.
‘Who knows? In the end, the game-state is so important in football. You have to recognise that. You can’t just isolate a moment to make an evaluation. It’s too simplistic.’
Arteta has delivered just one FA Cup and two Community Shields since he became Arsenal boss in 2019 and has been asked to reflect on his five-year tenure.
‘It’s been a very intense journey,’ Arteta added. ‘When you are near the top and you’re fighting at such a level you know you’re going to do that.
‘This job, this industry is constantly testing your resilience and your ego. When things are going well and when they’re not going well.
‘All the time you have to navigate and go through that in a natural way and understand the context. And go through the positives, that’s really important to help learn and look forward.’
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