Mikel Arteta said Arsenal’s defeat to Fulham was their worst performance of the season.
The Gunners were beaten 2-1 at Craven Cottage as they blew the chance to finish 2023 top of the Premier League.
Fulham were worthy winners and Arteta described the loss as a “painful and a sad day”.
Arsenal are now without a win in three Premier League games and two points behind leaders Liverpool, who play Newcastle in their game in hand on New Year’s Day.
“Today could have been a beautiful day to end the year that’s for sure,” said Arteta. “But these are the margins and you have to try and find the bar.
“We have to look at ourselves in the mirror because today’s performance is the worst we have played all season that’s for sure.
“We certainly need that reset after today because that’s going to be in our tummy for a few days. I repeat, the game against West Ham feels very different, so you can move on. It’s football, it can happen.
“What happened today cannot happen again because if you do that we will never have the chance to be where we want to be.”
Bukayo Saka gave Arsenal the lead after five minutes but the Gunners failed to kick on after that.
Fulham levelled before half-time though Raul Jimenez and Bobby De Cordova-Reid scored after the break to wrap up all three points.
“Painful and a sad day. That’s how I would sum it up,” said Arteta. “We had the chance to be top of the table after 20 games with the consistency that we’ve shown.
“We haven’t managed well enough to earn the right to win the game. Three days ago we lost a game that we deserved to win, today was a very different story.
"We weren’t good enough. We weren’t good enough in ball possession, we gave too many balls away. We didn’t have enough rhythm, enough threat. Defensively we were second best.
“We could not control the direct play. It was so easy for them to win that first and second ball and have the opportunity to run.
“Then we conceded two goals like we did against West Ham and when you do that in this league it’s going to be very difficult to win.
“If you drop games in this league, you drop points. At Anfield we lost two points but we had a big performance.
“We lost three points against West Ham and we had a big performance. Today is a different story. That’s why we feel sad because we were nowhere near the levels that we need across the 90 to do that.”
