Viktor Gyokeres slammed for ‘ridiculous’ and ‘weak excuse’ for Arsenal loss | Football

Viktor Gyokeres’ comment about the Emirates pitch has been labelled ‘ridiculous’ and ‘weak’ after Arsenal lost at home to Bournemouth on Saturday.

The Cherries seriously damaged the Gunners’ title chances by picking up a 2-1 win in north London, giving Manchester City renewed hope of reeling in the leaders.

Arsenal remain top of the Premier League table and nine points ahead of City, but Pep Guardiola’s men have two games in hand and host the leaders next weekend.

Mikel Arteta’s side was very underwhelming in defeat to Bournemouth and Gyokeres offered a strange reason for the loss straight after the final whistle.

‘We had some chances in the end,’ Gyokeres, who scored Arsenal’s goal from the penalty spot, told BBC Sport. ‘The pitch was a bit dry there to be honest so that didn’t help.’

‘But like I said we all need to do better and take our chances.’

Former Chelsea midfielder Craig Burley was not impressed, pointing out that the home team is able to water the pitch, and felt Gyokeres’ comment made Arsenal look weak.

‘It is a ridiculous comment to make,’ Burley said on ESPN. ‘Sometimes the pitch is a little bit dry, but is it dry for both teams?

‘Sometimes you might want a pitch that’s a bit skiddier, but Arsenal control that, they’re the home side. If that’s 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’s a little bit more fiery.

‘When you’re at home and you’re in control of that, there’s no point in retrospect making an excuse about it.

‘It makes you look weak and it makes you look like you’re doing what you’re doing, looking for excuses.’

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.

‘Of 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,’ said the Swedish striker.

‘We go into every game with the mindset we want to win the game and play at our best.

‘We 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.

‘They’re good on the counter-attacks. They have good players and did some good combinations. But we need to do better.’

Arteta did not sugar-coat the loss and what it means, saying: ‘It’s a big punch in the face, that’s what I said to the boys, and now it’s about how we react to that.

‘There’s no grey areas. We need to be very, very, very strong and determined to approach it in a different way than we’ve done today, especially when the game wasn’t going our way.

‘There’s a lot, a lot, a lot on our plate to look at ourselves.’

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.

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