Arteta says Arsenal players ‘deserve a slap’ and de Gea labels United display ‘a disgrace’ 

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta admitted he was ‘really upset’ after Arsenal’s defeat to Brighton and said his team ‘deserved a slap’ as they suffered another blow in the top-four race.

The Gunners are threatening to blow their Champions League qualification after suffering successive defeats to Brighton and Crystal Palace.

Graham Potter’s Brighton had gone seven games without a victory before their trip to the Emirates but outplayed Arsenal to win 2-1.

Leandro Trossard curled home a fine finish to put Brighton in front midway through the first half and Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli was denied an equaliser on the stroke of half-time following a four-minute VAR check.

But Arsenal failed to build on their momentum and went two goals behind when the impressive Enock Mwepu rifled a shot past Aaron Ramsdale.

Martin Odegaard scored late on but it proved nothing more than a consolation as Arsenal slipped three points behind fourth-placed Tottenham, who smashed Aston Villa in the evening kick-off.

‘It has been a tough week; especially today because we wanted a reaction [to the defeat at Crystal Palace].’ Arteta said.

 ‘It came in the second half, which is too late; we have to have the courage and personality to play much better and raise the level in the first half.

‘We made it really difficult for ourselves. We were sloppy, we had no purpose to attack, we were really imprecise and we didn’t want to play forward.

‘We’ve shown for many weeks how well we can play; it has been a difficult week and we’ve lost some big players, but if you get what you want, not everything is going to be with a blue sky.

‘This is our team in the good moments and especially the defeats. There are many games to play but we have to be concerned about that performance, especially first half.’

Asked how Arsenal plan to respond to two damaging defeats, Arteta – who said he was ‘really upset’ by his side’s latest setback – added: ‘What happens is we criticise ourselves a lot again, get slapped again because we deserve it and then lift ourselves up.

‘We know this road is taking us nowhere, especially with where we want to be. We have everything to play for in the last eight games and we have to have that energy and visualise the beautiful challenge that we have ahead and not sit back and see what happens.’

After Brighton moved up to 11th with just their fourth win in 26 league games, Seagulls boss Potter said: ‘It is a fantastic performance from the players and an even better result; I’m delighted for them.

‘We had to hang on and suffer, but we did and the result makes it worth it. You have to be disciplined and good defensively here. Arsenal are a team who are competing for the Champions League places.

‘They are top quality and we respected that; I didn’t think we could hang on for the 1-0, we had to score again. Delighted we did that, but even then, we had to suffer at the end.’

Elsewhere, United extended their run of poor form to one victory in seven games after the defeat at Goodison, a sequence which Ralf Rangnick, their interim manager, admits has left a top-four finish and Champions League qualification a tall order. 

But De Gea was even more dismissive of a defeat that strengthened Everton’s hopes of avoiding relegation.

“It is a disgrace from us, we should be winning this game,” De Gea said. “We are not good enough, that is for sure. It will be very difficult now to be in the top four. They had more desire than us, which is not acceptable.”

Reports this week suggested that United are edging ever closer to announcing the Dutchman Erik ten Hag as their long-term managerial choice, but Rangnick admitted that De Gea’s analysis was accurate.

“I totally agree [with De Gea],” Rangnick said. “If you don’t score against a team who conceded three goals at Burnley, it’s difficult to explain. The players should be eager to play European football, but if we play like we did we don’t deserve it.”

 “I know that we have fantastic supporters and the only thing we can do is stick together and raise the level of performance. I don’t think the place intimidated the players. My feeling is that we struggle with the level of expectation.”