Arsenal must use anger of defeat to rekindle title hopes, says Arteta

Martyn Herman, in LONDON – Arsenal must suffer for 48 hours and use the anger of their 1-0 home defeat by West Ham United to rekindle their Premier League title challenge, manager Mikel Arteta said on Saturday.

It was meant to be a weekend when Arsenal would put pressure on leaders Liverpool by beating West Ham and closing the gap to five points ahead of Liverpool's game at champions Manchester City on Sunday.

Instead, a toothless Arsenal lost at home in the league for the first time in 10 months and could find themselves 11 points adrift come Sunday night.

"Very disappointed, obviously very angry as well. I think you have to congratulate West Ham for the victory and the game that they played," Arteta told reporters.

"But as well I think a lot from our side that we never got right. Even though we had 20 shots, I never felt that we were at the standard and the level that we needed.

"We have to be (angry), I hope we are very much because we didn't hit the levels today and I am very much responsible for that so I am very, very angry."

With forwards Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka all ruled out with injuries, Arsenal's makeshift attack struggled to make any impact against West Ham.

Arteta refused to use the injuries as an excuse though.

"No, I refuse that completely because I am talking about the standards of the players and the team that we had today, me included. And that was nowhere near the levels that we have to hit to have the opportunity to win a Premier League."

Arteta can now only hope that Manchester City do them a favour on Sunday and that his side can respond away against third-placed Nottingham Forest on Wednesday.

"Honestly, I think we have to look in the mirror at ourselves of what we can do better," Arteta said.

"First of all (we have to) suffer for 24 or 48 hours, suffer and feel the pain and make sure that we come back to training on Monday with that bite and that anger still in the stomach for Wednesday."

On the title race, Arteta said: "It's not in our hands. For me, I'm really, really annoyed about the things that are in our hands and we didn't do as well as we possibly could and that's the performance and the result today."

Reuters