Mikel Arteta's fury at Bukayo Saka spoke volumes during damaging Arsenal defeat

01 January 2024 , 16:11

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Mikel Arteta's fury at Bukayo Saka spoke volumes during damaging Arsenal defeat

Mikel Arteta unleashed his fury on Bukayo Saka during Arsenal's 2-1 defeat at Fulham on New Year's Eve... after a misplaced pass.

The Gunners lost at Craven Cottage, despite Saka's fifth-minute opener. Raul Jimenez equalised before half-time and Bobby De Cordova-Reid scored the winner in the 59th minute to give Fulham all three points and consign Arsenal to a second successive defeat. Arsenal are now fourth in the Premier League table - having been top on Christmas Day - the Londoners picking up just one point from their three Christmas games.

Arteta made his feelings known in his post-match analysis, refusing to hold back with his assessment of his side. He slammed: "A sad day. Three days ago (loss to West Ham) we played a game we lost that we completely meant to win it, 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."

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That came after Arteta had made his feelings known to England star Saka during the early part of the second half. Saka's under-hit pass to Gabriel Magalhaes was intercepted, a seemingly easy pass for the winger to make and Arteta knew it, throwing his arms in the air in disgust as his made his displeasure crystal clear.

Mikel Arteta's frustration was obvious during Arsenal's latest defeat (Getty Images)

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Arteta also urged his team not to slip out of the title race. He added: "If we play like we played in the other 19 games we will be up there (near the top of the table). If we play like today we will be nowhere near. Today was a really difficult day to swallow."

Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice has also expects more from his team-mates. He told Sky Sports: "When go one up we have to have more control. We need to demand more from each other. We had to push on again and go for more.

"In this league there is no room to mess up. It is a tough one to take. We dominated the ball, played good stuff but again not putting the ball in the net. We knew three points would put us back on top. It is two defeats in a row. It is time to reset and we go again."

Tom Blow