A deflated Mikel Arteta demanded his ‘strange’ Arsenal team show more fight after receiving a ‘big punch in the face’ from Bournemouth to dent their Premier League title hopes.
A Viktor Gyokeres penalty cancelled out Eli Junior Kroupi’s goal, before Alex Scott struck a 74th-minute winner to seal the game for the Cherries.
The result was met by boos at full-time, with a tense atmosphere felt throughout the match in what is a big setback in the north London club’s title chase.
The Gunners remain nine points clear at the top, but have played two more games than Manchester City who face Chelsea on Sunday. Arteta’s men also travel to the Etihad next weekend to take on Pep Guardiola’s side.Arteta’s men also travel to the Etihad next weekend to take on Pep Guardiola’s side.
He said: ‘Well, extremely disappointing. It’s a big punch in the face. That’s what I said to the boys. And now it’s about how we react to that. Because game on, you’re going to require now a lot of fight and it’s very clear.
‘There’s no grey areas. We are in, or we are out. And we need to be very, very, very strong and determined to approach it in a different way than we’ve done today, especially when the game wasn’t going our way.
‘The second half you expect a different game. We did a lot of strange things today.’
The Spaniard also admitted that the 22-year wait for a league title does weigh heavy.
He said: ‘We know what is at stake. And the fact that as a club we haven’t done it for so long (win the title) is a reason for that.
‘We talked about the difficulty. But I just want to focus on the things that we can control, dominate.
‘Let’s keep doing all the things that we’ve done for nine months, because that’s what has taken us all the way there.
‘Today, we’ve gone back. So we need to learn. We need to be very critical to ourselves and then pick ourselves up. Because on Wednesday (against Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League), we have a big one coming up.’
On the fans booing, he added: ‘That’s clear. That’s emotion. It comes from the right place. It’s not a day for sure to demand anything like what the fans have (seen) today.’
