JAKARTA - Arsenal had to swallow a crucial 1-2 defeat from Bournemouth at the Emirates Stadium, Saturday, April 11, which made their chances of winning the Premier League title again threatened.
This result makes Arsenal fail to widen the gap at the top of the standings. In fact, victory will bring them 12 points ahead and closer to their first title since 2004.
Instead, the defeat left Arsenal's lead at nine points from Manchester City, who still have two games in hand.
Throughout the match, the atmosphere at the Emirates was tense. Every mistake by the players was greeted with complaints from the fans, while coach Mikel Arteta seemed frustrated to see his team having trouble developing the game.
Arsenal was judged to perform below their best, with a number of fundamental mistakes affecting the final result of the match.
With six games remaining, Arsenal's position is not completely secure. Manchester City have the opportunity to reduce the gap, including through the match against Chelsea and the direct match against Arsenal next week.
If the point difference is successfully cut, the threat of finishing as runners-up for the fourth time in a row will haunt Arsenal again.
Arteta admitted his team did not perform to standard. "Today there were some actions that were very far from the level we have shown and it was surprising," said the Spanish coach.
He also apologized to the fans for the disappointing result.
"We demand a lot from our fans and today we didn't meet that standard. We have to accept it and move on," he said.
Arsenal's decline in performance has actually been seen in the last few matches. Although they had recorded nine matches without defeat, they also lost points against lower teams such as Wolverhampton and Brentford.
In addition, Arsenal also failed in other competitions, including losing in the League Cup final and being eliminated in the FA Cup.
The only bright spot in the match against Bournemouth came from Viktor Gyokeres, who scored the equalizer through a penalty.
However, the Swedish striker remains optimistic.
"I am very confident. We don't need to be too fixated on what happened today. We have to look ahead," he said.
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