Thierry Henry has questioned the mentality of the Arsenal players who collapsed in unison after conceding a last minute goal in their defeat against Aston Villa.
Mikel Arteta’s men surrendered their 18-game unbeaten run at Villa Parklast Saturday in dramatic circumstances when Emi Buendia blew the title race wide open with the last kick of the game.
Manchester City’s subsequent win over Sunderland saw Pep Guardiola’s men pull ominously onto the shoulders of the leaders and are now just two points behind.
Arsenal legend Henry conceded the nature of the setback against Villa would have hurt but he believes the likes of David Raya and Declan Rice who fell to the turf in frustration overreacted and sent out the wrong message.
He told CBS: ‘What I didn’t like in that game was when they conceded the goal at the end everyone fell on the ground like you lost something.
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‘You lost a game, the same way that when you win the game it doesn’t mean you’re going to win everything.
‘But we lost a game away at Villa and everyone fell down like we lost something bigger than what it was.
‘You lost, you regroup, you try to see what you can do in the Champions League and move on and what you can do after that.
‘It’s just a matter of when you have never won anything it’s tough to cross that line. The fear of winning is sometimes bigger than the fear of losing.’
The defeat at Villa followed dropped points away from home against both Sunderland and Chelsea and Henry fears some familiar traits are being exhibited by a group of players who have gone so close to major success in recent years.
He added: ‘The way we went about it against Chelsea we didn’t try to win the game or try to win the game at the end against Villa. Bukayo Saka is on a yellow and you take him off.
‘Calafiori takes a yellow against Chelsea at 11 vs 10 and you take him off because you’re scared he will take a second yellow. That sends a message you’re scared of playing a player who will get another yellow.
‘You have to send a message out there that you can win the league. That’s the only thing missing for me.’
The Gunners are back in action this evening and Arteta will hope his side can return to winning ways and quickly get over their recent setback.
He said: ‘It was strange because we haven’t lost that many. That is a moment as well to reflect and have some perspective about what we are doing.
‘First of all, when you look at the reaction of the players when they are on the floor and in pain and what I felt in that moment, in the end, you don’t know how much they put in and how much they want it.
‘It is difficult but as well it is a reflection of who we are and what we want to get and this has to help us to be a better team, to learn the lesson, to value what we are doing.
‘First of all, all the difficulties that we have at the start of the season, where we are in both the Champions League and the Premier League, is where we want to be, and it is time that we have to learn every single day that the margins are very, very small.’
