{"id":2269,"date":"2026-04-12T23:45:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T23:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=2269"},"modified":"2026-04-12T23:45:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T23:45:06","slug":"viktor-gyokeres-slammed-for-ridiculous-and-weak-excuse-for-arsenal-loss-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=2269","title":{"rendered":"Viktor Gyokeres slammed for ‘ridiculous’ and ‘weak excuse’ for Arsenal loss | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n\t\t\"Arsenal\t<\/div>
Viktor Gyokeres offered an odd excuse for Arsenal\u2019s poor performance on Saturday (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Viktor Gyokeres\u2019 comment about the Emirates pitch has been labelled \u2018ridiculous\u2019 and \u2018weak\u2019 after Arsenal lost at home to Bournemouth on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Cherries seriously damaged the Gunners\u2019 title chances by picking up a 2-1 win in north London, giving Manchester City renewed hope of reeling in the leaders.<\/p>\n

Arsenal remain top of the Premier League table and nine points ahead of City, but Pep Guardiola\u2019s men have two games in hand and host the leaders next weekend.<\/p>\n

Mikel Arteta\u2019s side was very underwhelming in defeat to Bournemouth and Gyokeres offered a strange reason for the loss straight after the final whistle.<\/p>\n

\u2018We had some chances in the end,\u2019 Gyokeres, who scored Arsenal\u2019s goal from the penalty spot, told BBC Sport. \u2018The pitch was a bit dry there to be honest so that didn\u2019t help.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018But like I said we all need to do better and take our chances.\u2019<\/p>\n

Former Chelsea midfielder Craig Burley was not impressed, pointing out that the home team is able to water the pitch, and felt Gyokeres\u2019 comment made Arsenal look weak.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"Arsenal\t<\/div>
Gyokeres scored his 18th goal of the season on Saturday (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018It is a ridiculous comment to make,\u2019 Burley said on ESPN<\/a>. \u2018Sometimes the pitch is a little bit dry, but is it dry for both teams? <\/p>\n

\u2018Sometimes you might want a pitch that\u2019s a bit skiddier, but Arsenal control that, they\u2019re the home side. If that\u2019s what Arteta wants and Gyokeres and Declan Rice and (Martin) Zubimendi and (Noni) Madueke, all these players that are fit and available. Then the groundsman waters the pitch before the game and he waters it at half-time and they get a pitch that\u2019s a little bit more fiery.<\/p>\n

\u2018When you\u2019re at home and you\u2019re in control of that, there\u2019s no point in retrospect making an excuse about it.<\/p>\n

\u2018It makes you look weak and it makes you look like you\u2019re doing what you\u2019re doing, looking for excuses.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"Arsenal\t<\/div>
Mikel Arteta suffered his fourth league defeat of the season (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gyokeres did accept that Arsenal underperformed on Saturday, but insisted they still believe they will land silverware this season and are looking forward to the next challenge, which comes at home against Sporting in the Champions League on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u2018Of course it hurts. Luckily we have a good game again on Wednesday to play and another one at the weekend. We have a lot to look forward to,\u2019 said the Swedish striker.<\/p>\n

\u2018We go into every game with the mindset we want to win the game and play at our best.<\/p>\n

\u2018We always have that belief. We always want to win the games. We wanted to win this game. We played against good opposition and they won today.<\/p>\n

\u2018They\u2019re good on the counter-attacks. They have good players and did some good combinations. But we need to do better.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n

Arteta did not sugar-coat the loss and what it means, saying: \u2018It\u2019s a big punch in the face, that\u2019s what I said to the boys, and now it\u2019s about how we react to that.<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s no grey areas. We need to be very, very, very strong and determined to approach it in a different way than we\u2019ve done today, especially when the game wasn\u2019t going our way. <\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s a lot, a lot, a lot on our plate to look at ourselves.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbrowser that
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsupports HTML5
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tvideo<\/a><\/p><\/video>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Manchester City go to Chelsea in the Premier League in the 4.30pm kick-off on Sunday, looking to pile pressure on Arsenal with a victory.<\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: Arsenal transfer stance on \u00a330million star who \u2018the team has missed so much\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: Danny Murphy responds to Viktor Gyokeres excuse and reveals huge Arsenal mistake<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: Mikel Arteta told Arsenal star is \u2018not good enough to win title\u2019 after Bournemouth defeat<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tComment now<\/title>\n<\/svg><\/span>
\n\t\t\tComments<\/span>
\n\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\tAdd Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<\/svg><\/span>
\n\t\t\t\tAdd as preferred source<\/span>
\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n
\n
\n

Football Newsletter \u2013 In The Mixer<\/h4>\n

Punchy analysis, transfer talk and more from Metro’s football experts, sent straight to your inbox every week.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Viktor Gyokeres offered an odd excuse for Arsenal\u2019s poor performance on Saturday (Picture: Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2269","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\/2269","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=2269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}