Now’s not the time to lose Art LENO CALLS FOR GUN BATTLE
BERND LENO says now is not the time for Arsenal to feel sorry for themselves.
The goalkeeper is right – they should be feeling sorry for the supporters instead.
Just a couple of hours after Boris Johnson effectively cancelled Christmas for Londoners, Mikel Arteta’s side added to the festive fury of the Gunners’ fans by slumping to their eighth league defeat of the season.
It was an own- goal from Rob Holding and a header by Everton defender Yerry Mina that helped the Toffees leave former player Arteta in an even stickier patch.
The Arsenal boss seemed to indicate his team were worried about making mistakes.
But with a home Carabao Cup quarterfinal against holders Manchester City coming up tomorrow, there is no time to wallow in self- pity.
“It hurts a lot,” said Leno. “It’s not the time to feel sorry for ourselves. We have to stick together, we have to stay positive. This is the only way because on Tuesday we have another big game. We have to win games to come out of this situation and have a positive mood again.”
Arsenal made a horror start when former Gunner Alex Iwobi swung in a cross from the right that was diverted in by Holding in the 22nd minute.
The visitors got back into the game when Everton’s Tom Davies fouled Ainsley Maitland- Niles and Nicolas Pepe slid home the penalty.
But Mina’s header from a Gylfi Sigurdsson corner on the stroke of the interval turned out to be the winner. German Leno said: “The second goal was probably the key.
“When you concede just before half- time it is always very difficult, especially in our situation.
“In the second half we showed good body language, good attitude, so you can see this team is alive and we want to turn the situation around.
“Confidence is not on the top level but the only thing that can be said is we should stick together.”
This week marks a year for Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti and Arteta since they took over and both could have ended up with each other’s jobs, too.
But it is Arteta who is in the middle of a battle to prove to the Arsenal hierarchy that they still have the right man in charge.