Mikel Arteta described the defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion as “unacceptable”, while Ray Parlour warned the club are heading further back at the moment.
The north London club lost the game in injury time to a Neal Maupay’s strike on Saturday, after Nicolas Pepe had given then the lead in the 68th minute. The loss comes less than a week after Arsenal were beaten by Manchester City 0-3 at the Etihad Stadium in their opener after the Premier League’s suspension.
Arsenal now occupy the 10th position on the league standings, eight points behind Chelsea who are fourth and have a game later today.
And Parlour, who won the Premier League title three times insists their confidence would be “absolutely shot” following their meltdown at the Amex Stadium over the weekend.
“This was a game they had to win,” Parlour told Stadium Astro. “Not a lot of people would’ve given them a chance against Manchester City in a normal league period.
“But going to Brighton, if you’re going to compete with teams at the top – everybody’s dream at Arsenal is to get back into the Champions League, but these are the sides you’ve got to beat.”
Parlour also said the Gunners are too easily beaten, adding: “They got themselves in a good position by getting the opening goal, but they always give teams a chance.
“That’s the problem with Arsenal at the moment. Fair play to Brighton, they took that chance and they scored two fantastic goals – especially the last one. It was a fantastic winner for Brighton.
“But the fans will be very much on their backs a little bit now because they demand more of the players.They demands wins, they demand getting closer to that top five.
“At the moment Arsenal are going backwards.”
Arsenal manager wasn’t the happiest person after the game, branding the defeat as “unacceptable” after bottling their second half lead through a Nicolas Pepe goal.
“I know we have a young squad but we threw the game away,” Arteta said in quotes reported by BBC Sport. “I am very frustrated. It is unacceptable the way we lost the game. We had to put it to bed earlier.
“There’s a lot of things they have gone really well but we don’t compete. At this level you cannot give those sort of goals away.
“This is the challenge we all have at the football club, to rebuild to something that is worth the club we are representing.
“I just worry about tomorrow and lifting the players and winning the next football game.”
Aresenal play Southampton in their next game before engaging Norwich City.
