Mikel Arteta accepted the need for “mental strength” after public criticism from Patrick Vieira and Ars\u00e8ne Wenger following Arsenal’s 3\u20132 defeat to Manchester United.<\/p>\n
Arsenal were second best against United \u2014 as Arteta himself admitted, “we weren’t that good.” The club remain top of the Premier League by four points but the manner of the reverse at the Emirates, where they surrendered control after taking a deserved first-half lead, reignited scrutiny of the team’s collective composure.<\/p>\n
When asked about the former players’ assessments, Arteta replied: “That\u2019s fine,” Arteta stiffly shrugged when this criticism was put to him post-game. “I mean, we accept every opinion, where it comes from and they have the right reason to say it. At the end, we have to show the mental strength that we have on the pitch when it comes to a match day,” he acknowledged.<\/p>\n
He also reflected on performance levels: “We were absolutely brilliant in Milan and today we weren’t that good. I don’t know if it was mental. But because we were poor, especially technically in certain aspects of the game, against a team that when you make those mistakes, they can punish you big time. That was the difference.”<\/p>\n
Observers noted that United’s three goals came from an xG of 0.71, described in the original briefing as two unadulterated screamers and one an uncharacteristic gift, a point that some felt was overlooked amid the focus on mentality.<\/p>\n
Vieira was particularly outspoken, labelling the performance “disappointing” and arguing there were questions over the side’s aggression and leadership. “It was a disappointing performance,” the World Cup winner moaned. “When you\u2019re at the top of the table, you expect to win the game at home. Especially against United. They\u2019re still four points clear, but there\u2019s still questions about the mental strength of the team. I think there was a lack of aggression. Too many players failed to deliver.<\/p>\n
“It was a must-win game. They needed to send a message to the rest of the teams in the league.”<\/p>\n
Vieira singled out individuals by name: “It\u2019s not just that they lost the game, it\u2019s the way they lost the game,” he seethed. “[Bukayo] Saka and [Leandro] Trossard didn\u2019t produce enough to worry United .<\/p>\n
“They need a leader to lift the spirit of the team. They need to understand when they are on the pitch, they have to play with more energy and more risks. They have the quality. They didn\u2019t play with the freedom to express themselves. They need to go back to the basics. To express themselves, play with freedom, and go forward. There were too many players that didn\u2019t perform today.<\/p>\n
“I think Saka was too quiet. He is one of, if not, the best offensive player. Big games like that you expect him to score and take the team. Trossard is important, but he didn\u2019t perform. [Gabriel] Jesus ran a lot, used a lot of energy, but you want him to be in the box more. In the midfield, the only one [who performed] was Declan Rice. There were too many players who didn\u2019t play at their level.”<\/p>\n
Wenger, focusing on other details, commented on Arsenal’s build-up and the centre-back pairing: “I believe that they [Arsenal] wanted to win the game so much that they lacked a bit of patience in the build-up and with the speed of the ball,” the beIN Sports pundit judged. “They used a bit too much force and not enough technique. On the other side I believe that [Michael] Carrick found a good formula and a good balance between defensive stability and good technical level. ]”,<\/p>\n
Arteta and his squad must now address those questions as the season continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta accepted calls for mental strength after Vieira and Wenger criticised four Arsenal players. .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,172],"tags":[1162,826,1307],"class_list":["post-6261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-collapse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}