Mikel Arteta has slammed Arsenal's latest 'unacceptable' performance, conceding his job may be on the line if results don't pick up soon.
Yerry Mina's first-half header proved the winner for Everton in a 2-1 victory at Goodison Park and left the Gunners 15th in the Premier League table. Having taken just a point per game so far, they are in relegation form and reasonable questions have been raised about Arteta's position.
"I understand that," Arteta told reporters when asked if his job could be on the line. "My energy and my focus is only on getting the team of the situation. Maintaining the spirit in the team and the fight they showed every time on the pitch.
"You can see that, you cannot deny that. Obviously we are against the results, there's no question about that. It's not good enough. It's not acceptable for the standards of this football club and this is the challenge."
Arsenal haven't won in the league since beating Manchester United at the start of November, but Arteta doesn't feel his side's results are reflective of their performances. He singled out last weekend's defeat to Burnley as an example of a good performance that was undone by misfortune.
Yerry Mina exposed another Arsenal weakness on the stroke of half time! ?#EVEARS pic.twitter.com/U9PdmkAJj7
— 90min (@90min_Football) December 19, 2020
"The opponents are not generating anything," he said. "We lost against Burnley without conceding a single shot on target as well. This is how a lot of teams win a lot of games in the Premier League.
"We are not going to generate 15 or 20 chances against blocks like that. It's not realistic. When we have done as well we haven't been accurate enough to finalise those actions.
"It's been a bad combination. Sometimes we've played with ten men, sometimes we've conceded an own goal. It's a lot of things happening at the same time and when that happens it's difficult.
"Yes, obviously it is a really complicated situation but I am very encouraged by what I see from the players for trying to continue what we are trying to do. We have to improve but we have been very unlucky to not pick up many many points."
Source : 90min