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Mikel Arteta had no problem with former Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira questioning his team’s mental strength after their Premier League title hopes were dealt a huge blow by Manchester United.
The 3-2 defeat at the Emirates was the Gunners’ third winless game in a row in the league and meant their lead at the top is down to four points after a damaging weekend on which Manchester City and Aston Villa both won.
Arsenal looked to be cruising to victory after going ahead in the 29th minute through Lisandro Martinez’s own goal but thereafter the pressure appeared to get to them.
Martin Zubimendi’s dreadful error gifted an equaliser to Bryan Mbeumo before the break then Patrick Dorgu lashed in an outrageous strike off the underside of the bar to put United in front.
Mikel Merino came off the bench to squeeze an equaliser over the line and at that point the game appeared there to be won.
Yet Arsenal folded again, Matheus Cunha scoring a brilliant winner from range after which Sky Sports pundit and three-time title winner Vieira said there are “questions about the mental strength of the team”.
Asked for his response, Arteta said: “That’s fine. We accept every opinion, where it’s coming from. They have the right reason to say it. At the end, we have to show the mental strength that we have on the pitch when it comes to a match day.”
The extent to which the game changed following Zubimendi’s error will have been particularly alarming for Arteta.
There appeared to be little on pressure on the midfielder when he turned and inexplicably played the ball across his own goal and straight to the feet of Mbeumo, who confidently rounded David Raya and finished for his ninth goal of the season.
“I think we started the game really well, the first half hour we were very dominant,” said Arteta. “After that we gave them the goal.
“Errors are a part of football, very unlike us, but we gave them the goal and hope, and that shifted the energy because from half-time we really struggled especially to keep the ball in the right areas.
“In the second half they had two brilliant goals, some individual quality and magic moments. I think we managed to shift the energy, score the second goal, and you could feel that everything changed. The game was ready to go and win it.”
United’s interim boss Michael Carrick has now won both of his first two matches in charge following their victory over Manchester City at Old Trafford last Saturday.
“I just think we understood the flow of the game,” he said. “At times we were going to be feeling a little bit up against it and digging in. We wanted to try and take control as well.
“Away from home in these big games, you’ve got to take an element of control and calm things down a bit. I thought we did enough to grow into the game.
“The goals were fantastic goals, some of the football was good and we looked dangerous at certain times. There’s other times you have to defend. It was a performance with a bit of everything.”
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