William Saliba has vowed Arsenal will come back stronger after they suffered a third consecutive defeat on Sunday.
The Gunners created a number of chances, especially in the first half but exited the FA Cup in the third round following a 2-0 loss at home to Liverpool.
It saw Mikel Arteta’s team conclude a difficult festive period on another low after a run of four defeats in their last seven matches.
Arsenal will get the chance to reset with no fixture until January 20 and they are set to spend this week away in Dubai at a warm-weather training camp.
“We have to stick together,” Saliba said.
“We know we’re not in our best moment, but we won’t give up and we’ll come back even stronger.
“We will work a lot during this break, we will breathe a little bit. We will stick together and come back stronger and better.”
Arsenal were top of the Premier League on Christmas Day, but have only scored once in their last three fixtures in all competitions.
Like in their 2-0 loss to West Ham, their final home clash of 2023, the Gunners were wasteful in front of goal against Liverpool and made to pay when Jakub Kiwior headed an own goal past Aaron Ramsdale in the 80th minute.
Luis Diaz confirmed Liverpool’s place in round four with a fine finish after a slick counter-attack, but it could have been a different story had Reiss Nelson, Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz taken excellent first-half chances.
Arteta played down talk of a January move for a forward and insisted the fans must stick with his young side.
Saliba told the official club website: “I’m really disappointed because we started the game so well.
“We had too many chances too score, but we didn’t. Even in the second half, we were good. Unfortunately we conceded one free kick 10 minutes before the end.
View this post on Instagram
“We have to kill the game off before because when we have so many chances like this, we have to score.
“We have to defend free kicks better, we cannot concede like this, so we can be really disappointed.”
Arsenal were without forward Gabriel Jesus for the visit of Liverpool due to another knee injury, but Arteta played down concerns.
“He had some pain in his knee. We have done a scan that shows something,” Arteta insisted.
“Hopefully it’s not something big. It’s the same knee that he had before, so we could not take any risks.”
Postecoglou: Spurs have a confidence problem to overcome
Ange Postecoglou says that Tottenham need to "overcome" their low confidence after suffering a 4-2 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday.
Spurs slipped to their fourth consecutive Premier League defeat, being left to bemoan their slow start as they found themselves 4-0 down by the hour mark thanks to goals from Mohamed Salah, Andrew Robertson, Cody Gakpo and Harvey Elliott.
Richarlison came off the bench to salvage some pride for Spurs, scoring one before setting up Son Heung-min for a goal on his 300th Premier League appearance.
Spurs had the opportunity to cut the gap to the top four after Aston Villa’s defeat to Brighton, but they remain seven points off a Champions League spot.
Postecoglou’s side still have a game in hand over the Villans, though he was sure that Spurs would be able to put their recent poor run behind them.
Asked if Spurs had a confidence problem, Postecoglou told Sky Sports: "Maybe in the front third there is.
"It probably is a bit of a lack of confidence, but again, that's something the guys have to work through.
"You have to find a way to overcome that because, ultimately, if you don't put pressure on the opposition in the front third after you've worked your way up there, they're going to get comfortable with their position."
Spurs have won just one of their last nine Premier League away games, failing to win any of the last five.
Despite that run extending at Anfield, Postecoglou highlighted what he thought was an improvement on their recent performances.
He continued: "Obviously a hugely disappointing outcome for us but at least we were more like ourselves today in terms of our football.
"Our last two away games at Newcastle and Chelsea, apart from the results which weren't great either, we just didn't try and play our football.
"I thought today, even in the first half, some of our football, our pressing was back to where it should be."
Roma 1-1 Juventus: Juve miss chance to close gap to second after draw with Roma
Juventus were held to a 1-1 draw at Roma on Sunday, missing the chance to close in on Milan in second place in Serie A.
Roma took the lead after 15 minutes when Romelu Lukaku found himself in the perfect position to tap in the rebound from a Bryan Cristante shot.
Bremer levelled with a header for Juventus just after the half-hour mark when Federico Chiesa picked him out inside the box from a corner.
Both sides had chances to find a winner in the final minutes, with Roma keeper Mile Svilar making a fingertip save to push Manuel Locatelli's volley over the bar.
Third-placed Juventus have 66 points, five fewer than Milan, who drew 3-3 with Genoa earlier on Sunday. Roma are fifth with 60 points.
Data Debrief: Leading from the back
Since scoring his first Serie A goal in the 2019-20 season, Bremer is the defender with the most headed goals in the Big-5 European leagues, netting 13 in total. Each of his last seven goals have been headers.
His goal was enough to earn Juventus a point today, but it means that they have drawn each of their last four in the competition - a first since February-March 2012 under Antonio Conte.
Chelsea 8-0 Bristol City: Blues rout hands Hayes perfect home send off
Guro Reiten starred as Chelsea thrashed already-relegated Bristol City 8-0 to keep their title hopes alive in the Women's Super League on Sunday.
The Norwegian scored four goals, netting the opener from the penalty spot to get Emma Hayes' last home game in charge off to the best start.
She scored the other three in the second half in just over 20 minutes, while teeing up Agnes Beever-Jones for the seventh goal with just two minutes left.
Beever-Jones got two, with Sjoeke Nusken and Niamh Charles also adding to the scoreline to eradicate the goal-difference advantage that Manchester City, who lost to Arsenal earlier on Sunday, had over them.
Chelsea move to within three points of the Citizens, with a game in hand over them, remaining in the fight to lift their fifth-consecutive league title.
Data Debrief:
Chelsea have scored eight goals in a game for the first time since December 2022 against Leicester City, a match they also won 8-0.
The Blues have scored in their last six games in the WSL, though it does not come close to their longest run of games with a goal in the competition - a run of 20 from April 2023 to February 2024.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
