The previous time Arsenal suffered a second successive defeat, Mikel Arteta interrupted his flow of expletives to exclaim in the dressing room: “Today it is hard to defend you guys.” Nine months on, after a second successive loss, he told his players he loved them more than ever.
Different psychology, definitely, but also different circumstances. A season that had promised much in effect ended at Newcastle in May. Now Arsenal’s worst performance and worst result of this Premier League campaign has to be placed in context: they were almost immaculate before arriving at Goodison Park. They have still only dropped points against four teams: Manchester United, Southampton, Newcastle and Everton. That two are now found in the bottom three may be a possible frailty – Ralph Hasenhuttl’s last point came against Arsenal, Sean Dyche’s first win against them – or a coincidence. But if recent weeks saw Arteta’s team pass meaningful tests – winning at Tottenham, where defeat led to their undoing last season, beating Manchester United, often their nemesis in the second half of Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign – consecutive losses tell different tales.
