Mikel Arteta issued a personally apology for Arsenal’s performance on Saturday, saying he was ‘in shock’ and baffled as to why his players ‘could not put three passes together’.
Arteta was angry after Arsenal’s lacklustre 3-0 loss to Liverpool, adding that his players need to show ‘big balls’ in Thursday’s potentially season-defining Europa League game against Slavia Prague.
Arsenal lost despite the three most expensive players in the club’s history starting for the first time this season. Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nicolas Pepe – who cost a combined £174.5million between them – started while Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka missed out.