{"id":2273,"date":"2026-04-12T23:51:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T23:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=2273"},"modified":"2026-04-12T23:51:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T23:51:22","slug":"danny-murphy-responds-to-viktor-gyokeres-excuse-and-reveals-huge-arsenal-mistake-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=2273","title":{"rendered":"Danny Murphy responds to Viktor Gyokeres excuse and reveals huge Arsenal mistake | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\t\t\"Arsenal\t<\/div>
Viktor Gyokeres claimed Arsenal\u2019s pitch was too dry against Bournemouth (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Danny Murphy accused Arsenal of failing to display an ability to think on their feet during Saturday\u2019s damaging Premier League defeat against Bournemouth. <\/p>\n

The Gunners suffered a third defeat in four games in all competitions and have seen their status as champions-elect diminished. <\/p>\n

Bournemouth fully merited their second successive win at Emirates Stadium having controlled much of the game and capitalised on a catalogue of errors made by Mikel Arteta\u2019s jittery side. <\/p>\n

The Cherries did survive a late flurry of chances spurned by Viktor Gyokeres, after which the Sweden international striker blamed his team\u2019s lack of fluency on a dry pitch. <\/p>\n

That excuse has attracted widespread criticism and although Match of the Day pundit Murphy declined the opportunity to add his name to the growing chorus of derision he argued, were the playing conditions an issue, Arsenal should have been capable of showing enough nous to adapt. <\/p>\n

He said: \u2018Funnily enough, even it the pitch was dry I don\u2019t think they played enough long balls. <\/p>\n

\u2018Bournemouth pressed them high and went man for man at the back. You\u2019ve got Martinelli and Madueke who started the game I didn\u2019t see them hit any long balls, play some percentages and try and spin them around. <\/p>\n

\u2018So if the pitch is dry, you\u2019ve got international players make some different decisions.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"Arsenal\t<\/div>
Alex Scott scored Bournemouth\u2019s winner against Arsenal (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Arteta, meanwhile, described this latest setback which blows the Premier League title door wide open to Manchester City, as a \u2018big punch in the face\u2019.<\/p>\n

Arsenal\u2019s sobering loss \u2013 their third in a row domestically \u2013 inside a nerve-fuelled Emirates Stadium provides City with the chance to reduce the Gunners\u2019 nine-point lead to six when they face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s a big punch in the face, and extremely disappointing,\u2019 said Arteta. \u201cThat\u2019s what I said to the boys.<\/p>\n

\u2018There are no grey areas. Today there were some very basic things that we did extremely badly. When you do that, they\u2019re going to capitalise, and it becomes very chaotic and very difficult to control.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"FBL-ENG-PR-ARSENAL-BOURNEMOUTH\"\t<\/div>
Mikel Arteta\u2019s side were booed off against Arsenal (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018We have to look at ourselves. We have to suffer. It\u2019s painful. It\u2019s a terrible feeling. But tomorrow is a different day. And if somebody would have said to me in August, we are in this position right now in April, I\u2019m sure we would all have taken it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Arsenal have finished runners-up for the past three seasons, and their latest defeat not only hands the championship momentum to City, but again raises serious questions about their title-winning mentality.<\/p>\n

The two rivals meet at the Etihad Stadium next Sunday, and should Pep Guardiola\u2019s side triumph in that match, see off Chelsea on Sunday, and also beat Burnley on April 22 they would be level on points with the Gunners with five games remaining.<\/p>\n

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But Arteta, who was without Bukayo Saka, Jurrien Timber, Martin Odegaard and Riccardo Calafiori through injury on Saturday, said: \u2018We can\u2019t control that. What we can control is our performances over the last nine months.<\/p>\n

\u2018Anything that is said when you have a defeat at home, you have to accept that. There are no excuses. It\u2019s about how we\u2019re going to stand up, first of all, individually, and then as a team to change that immediately on Wednesday (against Sporting in the second leg).<\/p>\n

\u2018So, we need everything. We need everybody fit and available. The ones that were not involved today are really big, important players, and we need them immediately with us because then we\u2019re going to be much stronger.<\/p>\n

\u2018And then the other ones, they need to stand up. Me, being the first one, and embrace this challenge and go for it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: Arsenal make Mikel Arteta sack decision and choose \u2018ideal replacement\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes makes surprise Ruben Amorim claim<\/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

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Viktor Gyokeres claimed Arsenal\u2019s pitch was too dry against Bournemouth (Picture: Getty) Danny Murphy accused<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2273","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\/2273","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=2273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}