Declan Rice admitted Arsenal's "mentality" was not good enough against Fulham, but insisted there was no need for the Gunners to panic after a stumbling end to 2023.
The Gunners had the chance to finish the year at the top of the Premier League table, but instead sit fourth after a frustrating 2-1 defeat to Fulham. It is now just one win in five League matches for the Gunners, and back-to-back defeats in the space of a few days having also lost to West Ham.
Mikel Arteta's side made a strong start at Craven Cottage, taking an early lead through Bukayo Saka, but Raul Jimenez equalised before the break and Bobby Decordova-Reid scored what proved to be the winner just before the hour mark.
It was a worrying flat performance from Arsenal, with Rice frustrated at the failure to kick on after Saka's goal inside five minutes.
"When you go 1-0 up, you need to take more control and have more self-belief," Rice told Sky Sports.
"You need to have more desire, the mentality needs to be better. We need to demand more for each other."
He added: "In this league, there's no room to mess up. There's so many good teams around you and we want to be pushing up the top end of the table. It's a tough one to take today."
Should Liverpool beat Newcastle on New Year's Day, Arsenal will be five points off the pace in the title race, while Manchester City sit level on points with the Gunners despite playing a game fewer.
Tottenham are now only one point off Arsenal, after their New Year's Eve win over Bournemouth, and, while Rice is confident the Gunners can get their season back on track, there is plenty for Arteta and his players to consider in the three weeks before they return to Premier League action against Crystal Palace on January 20.
"I don't really look at the table," Rice said.
"There's a lot of media who talk and say 'Arsenal will win the league this year, Arsenal are better this year', and whatnot. But we don't get involved in that, we just try to take every game as we can, one by one.
"We've been doing really well, we have been at the top of the table and that's where we've wanted to be. There's been a blip in the road, but there's no room to panic. There's still so many games to go, we need to stay positive. It's not the time to be negative.
"We've got a great manager, a great set of players and we'll keep going."
