The pressure on Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger intensified on Sunday when his side slipped to a fourth successive defeat in all competitions with a 2-1 loss at Brighton & Hove Albion.
After a bright start from the visitors, Lewis Dunk volleyed in to give the home side the lead, ensuring Arsenal’s run without a Premier League clean sheet stretched to 11 games — their longest such run since February 2002.
Glenn Murray’s fifth goal in as many league games made it two for Brighton after 26 minutes, before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang pulled one back for Arsenal two minutes before halftime.
Arsenal improved in the second half but Brighton held on to secure a third Premier League home victory in a row to go 10th, while an eighth defeat in all competitions in 2018 leaves Arsenal trailing north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, who are fourth, by 13 points and two places.
“My future is not my main worry,” Wenger said. “It is not the first time I have lost so many games in row. I still believe I can do it (turn things around).”
Arsenal made three changes from the side beaten by Manchester City on Thursday, with Jack Wilshere returning to the starting XI, but the England international could only look on as Arsenal fell behind.
Petr Cech went up to claim a corner but was beaten in the air by Shane Duffy and Dunk was on hand to sweep home the loose ball.
Arsenal were struggling to cope with Pascal Gross’s movement, and sure enough, Gross played a pivotal role in Brighton’s second goal, curling a sublime cross into the middle for Murray to head home.
“We are definitely hitting our best form at the right time,” Brighton manager Chris Hughton said. “We started so well, we might have even got more goals.”
“We want Wenger out,” came the cry from the away end but Arsenal did improve as the half wore on and they got themselves back into the game when Aubameyang flicked home Granit Xhaka’s cross.
The visitors were in fact unlucky not to go into the break on level terms, after Laurent Koscielny’s header came out off the post.
Arsenal continued to press after the interval, with Mathew Ryan forced into a fine save to deny Mesut Ozil.
However, Arsenal could not create the killer chance to snatch a point and the final whistle was greeted with much anger from their fans.
The 2-1 loss on the south coast was Arsenal’s eighth defeat in 14 games in all competitions since the turn of the year and they are now 13 points behind fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League.
Yet even with some of his own fans calling for the Frenchman to step down at the Amex Stadium, Wenger remained confident in his own ability to reverse their slump.
“Yes (I can turn things around), because I have done it before,” Wenger said.“It is not the first time I have lost so many games in row. I believe I can do it.
“At the moment my future is not my main worry. It’s about Arsenal winning games, then we’ll see where we go from there.“I will do my best as long as I’m here.”
Wenger also pointed to a demanding fixture schedule as a reason for their struggles with the club having played Manchester City in the league on Thursday, days after losing to the same club in the League Cup final at Wembley.
“We have to recover physically first,” he said.“The programme we have at the moment is a bit too demanding.
“I can understand the (fans’) frustration. The League Cup situated in the middle of the season is always difficult when you don’t win it. It brings a lot of negativity. On top of that the game rearranged on Thursday night didn’t help us to compete today.”
With a top four spot so far out of reach, the Europa League may represent Arsenal’s best chance of qualifying for the Champions League next season.
Winning that competition, however, seems like a tall order, with in-form Italian side AC Milan up next for Arsenal in the round of 16.
“We have to be realistic in the Champions League (finishing in the top four spots), we need two teams to collapse,” Wenger added.
“I can’t see that happening at the moment because two teams (above us) dropping points is difficult to imagine. Of course the Europa League is very important.”
Runaway Premier League leaders Manchester City beat champions Chelsea 1-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday to extend their lead to 18 points and leave the London side further adrift from the Champions League qualification spots.
Pep Guardiola’s City, who have now won 14 straight home games, need just four wins from their remaining nine matches to be crowned champions.
“It was so important, a win today is another step closer,” Guardiola said.
“We need four victories to be champions, it is in our hands and if our behaviour is like today we will be champions”.
After Chelsea’s defensive approach resulted in a first-half stalemate, City went ahead 33 seconds into the second period when Bernardo Silva turned in a low cross from David Silva.
Chelsea have now lost four of their last five Premier League games and are in fifth place, five points behind Tottenham Hotspur who occupy the fourth Champions League spot.
It was far from a classic game with Chelsea showing little ambition and City happy to play within themselves for large stretches, but that was perhaps a consequence of a title race that has effectively been over for months.
Still Chelsea hardly approached the game like a team who needed points to get back in contention to qualify for Europe’s elite competition.
Antonio Conte left both Chelsea’s recognised strikers – Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud – on the bench and opted to play winger Eden Hazard as a lone striker.
“When you play against a team that has shown to be stronger than you – because 25 points is a big difference – you have to think with your brain and not your head because otherwise you finish with a bad loss and that’s not good for the players,” he said.
The Londoners defended deep and in numbers from the outset but, missing the tenacity of the absent N’Golo Kante showed little willingness to press in midfield and the result was a first half dominated by City possession but with few openings.
City, who had played Arsenal on Thursday, lacked their usual sharpness in midfield although they went close to an opener when a deep cross from Kevin De Bruyne was brilliantly taken down by Leroy Sane but the German’s goalbound shot was cleared off the line by Cesar Azpilicueta.
Nicolas Otamendi put the ball in the net for City, after Sergio Aguero had hooked on a quick free kick but the effort was ruled out for offside and the teams went in for halftime with a disappointing game scoreless.
It took just 33 seconds of the second half for that to change, however, Aguero finding David Silva on the left and the Spaniard’s low cross was turned in at the back post by Bernardo Silva.
If Chelsea fans expected that goal to force a change of approach from Conte they were disappointed as they had to wait until the 78th minute for Giroud to be brought on for Willian.
But neither the French forward nor Morata, who came on in the final minute, made an impact with only an optimistic effort from Marcos Alonso in stoppage-time which flew wide troubling City’s underworked defence.
City completed 902 passes, more than any other team in a single Premier League match since 2003-04 when such statistics were first officially recorded.
Reuters