Prior to their 2-0 defeat at PSV, the Gunners last weekend, dropped points in a 1-1 draw with Southampton, allowing Man City cut their lead at the top of the Premier League.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was visibly displeased as his side were handed their first UEFA Europa League defeat on Thursday night, following a 2-0 loss to Dutch side PSV Eindhoven.
The Eredivisie side won the battle at the Phillips Stadion thanks to second-half goals from Joey Veerman and Luuk de Jong.
Despite the defeat, the Gunners still sit at the top of the Europa League Group A, with PSV in close second and trailing by just two points. The win for PSV also meant they joined Arsenal as the second team in their group to qualify for the knockout stages.
Arteta disappointed by Arsenal’s performance
Speaking after the game, Arteta couldn’t hide his disappointment, adding that it was time for his team to reset.
« Yeah, it’s the end of a long run. Today is the first defeat after a long, long period. It’s time to reset, and analyse what happened, obviously congratulations to PSV they were the better team, they deserved to win the game, there’s no question about it.
« We were nowhere near our level, especially the way we competed.
« I don’t know, we’ve had periods where we were excellent and periods where we suffer, » Arteta said when asked if he saw the result coming. « For sure, we haven’t had the consistency throughout 95 minutes to maintain the level that we want and this is the next challenge and the next aim for this team.
« In the second half, the moment something went wrong we just went down and we didn’t find moments to give us some hope to react and get something out of the game. »
Arsenal to return attention on the Premier League
Arsenal will now turn their attention back to the Premier League where they will take on 20th-placed Nottingham Forest in a top-of-the-table vs bottom-of-the-table clash at the Emirates Stadium.
Last weekend, the Gunners dropped points in a 1-1 draw with Southampton, allowing Manchester City cut their lead at the top of the Premier League.
Their last group game in the Europa League will see them welcome FC Zurich to London before playing two more Premier League fixtures and one Carabao Cup game before the World Cup break in November.
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