Mikel Arteta says he saw ‘a lot of strange things’ in Bournemouth defeat and warns Arsenal players: ‘If you don’t fight you’re out’

The Gunners took the lead in March, jumping out to a nine-point lead, but have since suffered an alarming drop in form as nerves begin to fray.

“Obviously it’s really disappointing,” Arteta told TNT Sport. “This is a big punch in the face. How we react now is important.”

When asked about the pain level of his players, he replied: “It’s going to hurt a lot. It’s going to put stress on your jaw. It’s going to hurt.”

“There’s no gray area now. You either get up and go fight or you’re out. That’s it. That’s what this level demands right now.”

‘They were beaten’ – Keown and Hargreaves assess Arsenal’s loss to Bournemouth

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Arsenal remain nine points behind leaders Manchester City, but their rivals have two games in hand and will have the chance to close the gap again when they host Arteta’s side at the Etihad Stadium next Sunday.

With crucial games in Europe and the Premier League coming up, Arteta was asked if this week was the biggest week of his career.

“This is an important week and there’s a lot at stake,” he said. “We are still in a very good position in both competitions, but we need to do better.”

Manager Arteta was dissatisfied with his team’s performance after the match, accusing his players of doing “a lot of strange things”.

‘We know how good we are’ – Jokeres defiant after Bournemouth blow

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Junior Crupi put the Cherries ahead and Viktor Gökeres equalized from the penalty spot before the break, but Alex Scott’s superb goal after 16 minutes sealed victory for the visitors.

“I give credit to them. There’s a reason why this team hasn’t lost in 11 games, because they’re doing a lot of things right,” Arteta said.

“With so much possession in the first half, so many chances, trying to break the press, win the ball back, run and create space, we were far from efficient.

“It was their first chance to attack in the box and it was a deflection. Our defense was very poor and that led to the goal. Emotionally it’s something we have to deal with.”

“We tried to recover from that, tried to force them and scored from penalties. You would expect it to be a different game in the second half, but I would say we did a lot of strange things today.”

Arteta was then asked if the level of his players had been surprising.

“Yes, because we are very consistent,” he said.

“It can happen, this is football. You don’t know what they’re going to do, how many shots they’re going to take, but some days you have to give them credit for what we did and how we capitalized on our mistakes. We were far from our level today.”

‘Why don’t you give your best when you need to?’ – Hargreaves questions Arsenal’s mentality

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