Granit Xhaka has rejected his own manager’s claim that Arsenal’s mentality is lacking after letting two-goal leads slip in successive weeks.
The Gunners saw their title hopes dented by Liverpool at Anfield, despite looking good for the three points before their advantage was wiped out. Then lightning struck again in East London against West Ham on Sunday. Two-nill up up after 10 minutes, the visitors let the Hammers back into the game, but Bukayo Saka’s missed penalty at 2-1 proved crucial as Jarrod Bowen levelled things up to leave Manchester City breathing down the leaders’ necks.
That led Mikel Arteta to question his side’s bottle and killer instinct with a potentially decisive clash with City to come at the Emirates. But Xhaka is having none of it, insisting he and his teammates have the mental strength to cope when the going gets tough. “It is not about the mentality,” he said.
“For sure, it’s not. If something is not going well, it is easy to show the finger to someone else. Now, it is time to be together because there are seven games to go.”
Arsenal were expected to challenge for the top four at best before the season started. But that’s no excuse to let things slip now, according to Xaka. he added: “We took this challenge until now and nobody was thinking about it before the season started,” said Xhaka. “So, let’s take the challenge as well.
“Liverpool away and West Ham were always going to be two very difficult games. We knew that. So let’s refresh everything now. Let’s analyse the game and I am sure that you will see a reaction on Friday.
“We have to watch the game again to analyse why this happened twice in a row. But I am not worried too much. If anyone thinks that we go through the last eight games without any dropped points or winning and smashing the teams, I think they are not in the right position.
“Nothing has changed [from] before the game. We know that we will face Southampton at home and then go to the Etihad, with the same objective as before the West Ham game .
“I am not angry. I am disappointed of course, because you had a chance against West Ham after 2-0 to take the three points.
“But this is football, you can’t win the games if you don’t perform over 90 minutes. We didn’t do it. But we still have everything in our hands. If you win the games we have left, you know what happens.”
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