Arteta sends message to Arsenal fans after Bournemouth defeat | OneFootball

The manager said they must apologise, accept the criticism and respond better after wasting the advantage of another strong home atmosphere.

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Mikel Arteta has told Arsenal supporters the only response to the defeat against Bournemouth is to apologise, accept it and improve.

After a poor home performance and result that frustrated every Arsenal supporter watching, the Arsenal manager made clear that he felt the players had fallen short of what the support in the stadium deserved.

Asked what he would say to supporters, Arteta said: “Apologise, take it on the chin and that’s it.

“What I’m trying to do is give our best to the club, give the best possibility to our players, and I know, if the atmosphere, the fans, the support, the energy in the stadium is the best in the world, we have a much better chance.

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“I don’t think that there’s any other possibility to perform better than when you have that kind of support.

“But then we have to respond, and we had moments in the first half where we did it, and there were other moments that we weren’t at our level.

“So, then we have to apologise to them and improve, for sure.”

Viktor Gyokeres scored his 18th goal of the season in the 2-1 loss at the Emirates Stadium, and his assessment afterwards was that Arsenal did not do enough with the game, particularly after drawing level.

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“We didn’t come up to our level throughout the game,” he said.

“I think when we scored to make it 1-1, we felt good as a team. We had some dangerous chances before that, and we wanted to take control of the second half, but maybe we didn’t create enough in attack.

“They didn’t create so much either, but they were clinical and they scored on the chances they got. That’s why it wasn’t a good result today.”