‘It’s a FAILURE and we BOTTLED it’: Piers Morgan snaps back at comments suggesting Arsenal’s season has been a ‘success’ and hammers the Gunners for ‘surrendering in a pitiful manner’ against Brighton
- Piers Morgan has slammed Arsenal for ‘bottling’ the Premier League title race
- Arsenal’s hopes were extinguished in a 3-0 defeat against Brighton on Sunday
- Manchester City now hold a four point lead over Arsenal with a game in-hand
Piers Morgan has slated Arsenal for ‘bottling’ the Premier League title following their 0-3 defeat against Brighton at the Emirates on Sunday.
Mikel Arteta’s side needed to win all of their remaining games to keep the pressure on Manchester City – who they additionally needed to drop points – but capitulated in the second-half against Roberto De Zerbi’s Seagulls.
Morgan is a lifelong Gunners supporter and wanted his team to lift a first English top-flight title in almost 20 years this season, but has now gone in on Arteta and Arsenal’s young stars for effectively handing Man City a third consecutive Premier League crown.
Not afraid to back his views in-person or on social media, Morgan was responding to a comment by broadcaster Jake Humphrey who was attempting to explain that Arsenal finishing second was still a success for the club.
Humphrey tweeted: ‘I hate this narrative that Arsenal bottled it. They have pushed one of the PL’s greatest ever teams all the way, and done it with a young coach and young players who finished 5th last season.
Arsenal slumped to a 0-3 home defeat against an impressive Brighton side on Sunday
Arsenal stars Bukayo Saka (left) and Martin Odegaard (right) looked dejected at full-time
Manchester City now hold a clear advantage with a four point lead over Arsenal and a game in-hand
‘It’s nothing but a success. They fell short, they’ll be stronger for it.’
Some rival fans have mocked Arsenal for ‘bottling’ the league who previously maintained an eight point lead over Man City before surrendering two goal leads in back-to-back draws against Liverpool and West Ham before drawing with now-relegated Southampton.
Arteta and his young Gunners team can still mathematically win the title, but would require City to suffer a massive slip-up in their final three games where they also maintain a game in-hand on the chasing pack.
Morgan refused to pull any punches in his criticism, posting online: ‘It’s not ‘success’ to be 8pts clear, then fail to win two consecutive games when we were 2-0 up, go 2-0 down in 10 mins at home to the worst team in the League, get humiliated at City, and surrender in a pitiful manner to Brighton at home today.
‘It’s failure, and we bottled it.’
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard admitted after Sunday’s disheartening defeat that there was ‘no hope’ for his side in the Premier League title race now.
Arsenal supporter Piers Morgan (right) has slammed Mikel Arteta’s (left) side for ‘bottling’ the league
The dejected Norwegian admitted after the game: ‘Yes, it feels like that [the title is gone]. I think it’s going to be very difficult to be honest. So yeah it’s a tough one to take.
‘It’s not a good feeling at the moment especially the way we played in the second half. It’s a big, big disappointment and yes it feels like no hope now.’
Meanwhile Manchester City continued their quest for a third successive league title by beating Everton 0-3 at Goodison Park.
Ilkay Gundogan scored twice for the second game in a row, while Erling Haaland bagged his 36th Premier League goal of the season with a first-half header that beat Jordan Pickford.
