{"id":2060,"date":"2026-04-12T04:14:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T04:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=2060"},"modified":"2026-04-12T04:14:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T04:14:40","slug":"arsenal-mentality-smashed-to-pieces-as-here-comes-the-melt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=2060","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal: Mentality &#8216;smashed to pieces&#8217; as &#8216;here comes the melt&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p>Paul Merson has blasted Arsenal after they were beaten 2-1 at home by Bournemouth, giving Manchester City yet more confidence in the Premier League title race.<\/p>\n<p>Man City have already beaten <strong>Arsenal<\/strong> in the League Cup final, while Mikel Arteta\u2019s side were surprisingly knocked out of the FA Cup by Southampton in the last eight. To make matters worse for the Gunners, they dropped more points in the Premier League on Saturday, as Alex Scott netted a deserved winner for Bournemouth.<\/p>\n<p>Eli Kroupi Jr gave Bournemouth the lead early on when Gabriel inadvertently sent an Adrien Truffert cross into the striker\u2019s path.<\/p>\n<p>Gabriel then won a penalty for Arsenal as his shot hit Ryan Christie\u2019s arm, and Viktor Gyokeres dispatched of the spot-kick in the 35th minute.<\/p>\n<p>But Bournemouth had the last laugh as they pounced on Arsenal unsuccessfully playing out from the back. Evanilson flicked on Christie\u2019s pass to send Scott through on goal, and the midfielder finished confidently.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal still have a nine-point lead at the top of the table, but City have two games in hand. Plus, the two sides face each other at the Etihad next weekend, with Arsenal now under massive pressure to win.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: Arsenal enter crisis mode as Arteta failings exposed again on \u2018big day\u2019 for Bottlepocalypse<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On <a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/news\/11670\/13530529\/arsenal-open-play-attack-and-mentality-of-mikel-artetas-side-warrants-scrutiny-after-bournemouth-loss-opens-door-for-man-city\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Sky Sports<\/em><\/a>Merson was asked what today\u2019s result will do for Arsenal\u2019s mental fortitude. He said: \u201cOh, it\u2019s smashed it to pieces. Absolutely.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of a sudden, if Man City win their three games, they\u2019re level on points.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPlus, they\u2019ve got two games to make the goal difference up. If they beat Arsenal, soon as you start winning 2-0, that\u2019s a four-goal swing.<\/p>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBz4f65xMr\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve got to keep away from the papers, press and social media because everyone will be saying, \u2018here comes the melt.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is a terrible result today. A real bad performance as well. No energy, no, \u2018let\u2019s go and take the game to Bournemouth.\u2019 It was sloppy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE: Hargreaves shocked by \u2018remarkable\u2019 Arsenal stat as Bournemouth \u2018suffocate\u2019 Prem leaders<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On <em>TNT Sports<\/em>Martin Keown reacted to the loss by saying:\u00a0\u201cHuge disappointment. Bournemouth were quite magnificent, Southampton were magnificent last week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be better than you were today. Not developing the play through midfield.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve got written down here, \u2018stick together,\u2019 and you\u2019re gonna have to. You\u2019ve got a huge game in midweek (the second leg vs Sporting), everyone\u2019s gonna be writing you off now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDoes that change the psychology? Does that help the players? It seems like the pressure today was too much at times.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe energy, we\u2019re lacking energy. Bournemouth were fantastic in the duels, they seemed really fired up. I know they\u2019ve had 22 days of rest, and Arsenal have had a lot of matches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNevertheless, it\u2019s nearly there for you, you\u2019ve got to find the energy from somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT: Max Dowman for England? \u00a3100m Arsenal duo offer reality check over latest prodigy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- Article End --><\/div>\n<p><script>\n        !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n        {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n        n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n        if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n        n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n        t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);\n        s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n        '\n        fbq('init', '1399787394855675');\n        fbq('track', 'PageView');\n    <\/script><script>\n        !function(e,n,t){var o=e.getElementsByTagName(n)(0);e.getElementById\n    <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul Merson has blasted Arsenal after they were beaten 2-1 at home by Bournemouth, giving<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}