"The worst performance of the season." Arteta criticized Arsenal following the defeat to Fulham

Arsenal's head coach Mikel Arteta commented on the unexpected 1:2 loss to Fulham in the 20th round of the Premier League.

The Spanish tactician criticized his players, labeling the team's performance as the worst of the season.

"Really tough day. A sad day. Three days ago [2-0 defeat by West Ham] we played a game we lost that we completely meant to win it, today was our worst game of the season. The pace, the purpose we have in attack, defensively we were second best, we could not dominate and had issues because of that. We didn't do enough with that [possession] - not enough purpose, speed or threat. We were sloppy with the ball. It wasn't good enough. We didn't deserve to win.

When you have opportunities to go top of league on December 31 and now end up with a really bad feeling, that is football. The lines are really thin. If we play like we played in the other 19 games we will be up there [in the league at the end of the season]. If we play like today we will be nowhere near. Today was a really difficult day to swallow." said Arteta after match.

The Gunners have now gone three Premier League games without a win. As the New Year begins, Arteta's side currently sits in fourth place in the English Premier League standings. On January 7th, Arsenal will face Liverpool in the FA Cup.