Mikel Arteta criticised Arsenal’s mentality after they threw away a two‑goal lead at West Ham in a significant blow to their title hopes, accusing them of lacking purpose and killer instinct having cruised through the opening half-hour.
In a frank dissection of his team’s display, which was by some distance their worst of the season from the moment Saïd Benrahma’s 33rd‑minute penalty changed the afternoon’s dimension, Arteta said Arsenal had missed the ruthlessness required to make sure of a result that looked nailed on in the early stages. When Martin Ødegaard added to Gabriel Jesus’s opener in the 10th minute it seemed a question of how many they would score.
