Mikel Arteta says Arsenal players 'deserve to feel pain' after West Ham loss
Mikel Arteta said that Arsenal's players deserve to feel pain after succumbing to a 1-0 home defeat by West Ham on Saturday.
Liverpool's recent draws with Everton and Aston Villa had given the Gunners encouragement in the title race, and a victory would have closed the gap at the top of the table to just five points ahead of the Reds' trip to Manchester City on Sunday.
Jarrod Bowen's first-half winner, though, means the gap between first and second will increase to 11 points if Liverpool manages to win at City, while the Reds also have favorable fixtures in the run-in as well as a healthier squad.
Arsenal lacked a cutting edge in attack without Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus, and Kai Havertz, who are all sidelined with long-term injuries.
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Ethan Nwaneri, Leandro Trossard, and Mikel Merino lined up in a three-pronged attack, which was fairly easily nullified by West Ham's defenders – and the Gunners' misery was compounded when Myles Lewis-Skelly was sent off.
Lewis-Skelly was shown a straight red card for dragging Mohammed Kudus to the ground after losing possession in a dangerous position, and Arteta wasn't interested in discussing whether the referee made the right decision in dismissing the youngster.
"I don't know, I haven't seen it back," Arteta said after a VAR intervention led to the match referee upgrading Lewis-Skelly's punishment from a caution to a sending-off. "The decision has been made, it's done. Let's move on. It is painful, but this is sport. We need to feel the pain today, I think we deserve that."
On the match itself, Arteta said: "We started the game and we never got a grip of it. We didn't generate a threat or momentum. They have the quality to deliver those moments and after that, it becomes a difficult game. We got the red card and that was another big mountain to climb and we tried to react, but we didn't have enough quality moments to unlock things at the back.
"Credit to West Ham, they were really aggressive in their duels."
