Mikel Arteta has always favoured a pursed lips and gritted teeth approach to his press conferences, biting down on his disappointment like a wedge of lemon, but after watching his side’s bleak defeat by Brighton, Arsenal’s manager made no attempt to swallow his frustration. He questioned his players’ courage and lack of purpose, bemoaned an absence of leadership and reserved criticism for his own tactical mishaps, too. On the one hand, that was merely a natural reaction to a result that could yet prove so pivotal – and costly – in the top-four race. But perhaps it also betrayed the swirl of pressure that loomed over, in Arteta’s words, a “cold atmosphere” at the Emirates on Saturday, as optimism faded into a sinking realisation that the pieces the Spaniard has wrestled so vigorously into place over the course of this season are still all too easily broken apart.
They had returned from the international break as favourites to pip Tottenham to the fourth Champions League spot. But what a second defeat in five days proved is that Arsenal’s greatest enemy may in fact still be themselves. Their implosion against Crystal Palace was timid and inexcusable, evoking memories of the previous unravellings Arteta had sought to eradicate. There was more heart on display in the frantic final few minutes against Brighton, as Arsenal desperately scrapped for a last-ditch equaliser, but it would have been more than they deserved against a side who’d not only failed to win any of their last seven league games but had managed to score just once during that dire spell. “We know this road is taking ourselves nowhere,” Arteta said afterwards. “Especially with where we want to be.”
