Mikel Arteta has urged his Arsenal players to show “big balls” for the rest of the season, after their dismal 3-0 defeat against Liverpool on Saturday night.
The Gunners turned into a lifeless screen and collected just three shots against the Reds as they conceded over 15 attempts on their own goal. The North Londoners also handed over 64% of the possession when they were knocked out by the Premier League champions.
Speaking after the match, Arteta beat his players for their lack of “courage” and demanded that they meet this challenge with “big balls” during the last weeks of the season.
? Arsenal have only had three shots or less in four Premier League matches since we received Opta data in 2009/10
? All four mentioned matches have come under Mikel Arteta! pic.twitter.com/duC52aUwq2
– WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) April 3, 2021
“It’s a challenge and an opportunity,” he said. “If you have the courage and big balls and you represent a club like this, you have to get up in the next game and take it.”
Arteta was graceful in defeat and acknowledged that Arsenal “completely” deserved the loss, and the Spaniard even accepted responsibility for the inability of his players.
“We completely deserved to lose the game. They were better in every division and deserved to win the match by the margin they had, or even more. I take responsibility for how we played today.
“I do not have to use any excuses – that we do not have five or six players – the standards are much higher at this football club and I have to get them to perform at that level. It was also technical. We gave away each ball and could not put together three passes. The foundations did not exist today.
“Right now I’m shocked. I did not expect that because of how the team trained.”
1 – Arsenal attempted just one shot in the first half of a Premier League home game for the first time since November 2015 against Spurs. Attached. #ARSLIV
– OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 3, 2021
The Arsenal manager also apologizes to the fans for the lame display and promises that his stars can do better than this lukewarm loss for Liverpool.
“We want to apologize, to our people and our fans,” he said. “This is nowhere near what we want and we need to do better.”
