Piers Morgan lays into "dreadful" Arsenal and points out Arteta transfer mistake

31 December 2023 , 19:03

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Piers Morgan lays into "dreadful" Arsenal and points out Arteta transfer mistake

Piers Morgan has slammed Arsenal's "inexplicably dreadful performance" as they were beaten 2-1 by Fulham on New Years' Eve.

The Gunners' Premier League title bid has stalled in recent weeks, with Mikel Arteta's side winning just one of their last five games, and Arsenal fan Morgan has bemoaned the club's lack of physicality and their mentality.

Morgan also suggested they were missing Granit Xhaka in central midfield and claimed their Premier League title bid was already over, despite them being just two points behind leaders Liverpool.

"Arsenal are being bullied by teams who've realised our midfield/attack is very skilful, but physically weak," Morgan wrote on social media. "We need more muscle. I miss Xhaka. Arsenal look a pale imitation of last year's swaggering team. Depressing to watch.

"Another inexplicably dreadful performance. You can't lose to Aston Villa, West Ham and Fulham in the space of 3 weeks and expect to win the Premier League. It's over before we even get to 2024."

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He also responded to a Manchester City fan who questioned Arsenal's mentality, adding: "Unfortunately, it's the mentality of our players in the past 3 weeks which has made it clear we're not ready to win the League.

"Champions don't get so comprehensively outplayed in every department by West Ham and Fulham." And Arteta admitted after the match that it was Arsenal's "worst game of the season", warning his players that they will be "nowhere near" the title if they continue to play like that.

Mikel Arteta admitted their performance against Fulham was their "worst game of the season" (Getty Images)

Speaking to BBC Sport, the Spaniard said: "Today was our worst game of the season. The pace, the purpose we have in attack, defensively we were second best, we could not dominate and had issues because of that.

"We didn't do enough with that [possession] - not enough purpose speed or threat. We were sloppy with the ball. It wasn't good enough. We didn't deserve to win. When you have opportunities to go top of league on 31 December and now end up with really bad feeling that is football.

"The lines are really thin. If we play like we played in the other 19 games we will be up there [in the league at the end of the season]. If we play like today we will be nowhere near. Today was a really difficult day to swallow."

Matthew Cooper