Mikel Arteta brands Arsenal performance 'unacceptable' after Crystal Palace defeat
- Planet Sport writer
- 5 April 2022
Gunners fail to force way back into top four as they're well beaten at Selhurst Park.
Mikel Arteta accepted that the performance level was "unacceptable" as Arsenal crashed to a potentially damaging 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace.
Tottenham beat Newcastle 5-1 on Sunday, increasing the pressure on the Gunners in the race for Champions League qualification next season.
The result leaves the sides level on points with Spurs ahead on goal difference, although Arsenal have a game in hand too. They are also scheduled to play each other before the end of the season too.
Goals from Jean-Philippe Mateta, Jordan Ayew and Wilfried Zaha gave Palace their dominant win, but Arteta says his players do not have the luxury to dwell on what went wrong - but he does want them to own it.
"Overall, it is unacceptable, we hold our hands up, me the first one and apologise, we regroup, tomorrow is a new day and a new opportunity to start to prepare against Brighton," Arteta said.
When asked if he believed the pressure of the Champions League race got to them, he replied: "No, because the pressure has been there for the last seven or eight weeks and we are talking all the time about the race and the top four and this is while they have been performing extremely well, getting results and playing well.
"Today we didn't perform and it is as simple as that. We were second best in every department, especially in the first half."
Despite the result, Arteta believes his side still hold the edge over Spurs in what could be a blockbuster run-in.
"We have a game in hand still," he explained. "We know in the nine games a lot of things are going to happen.
"We have to play each other, we have to play some big games coming up and we have to focus on ourselves. The problem we had today was not Spurs, it was us and what we did in the first half."
There was more bad news for Arsenal on the injury front too, with Thomas Partey limping off with an injury that Arteta has described as "a big concern," while he also confirmed defender Kieran Tierney is awaiting results of scans to determine the extend of a knee injury.
