Arsenal defender Shkodran Mustafi has admitted that he and his teammates only have themselves to blame for their failure to mount a serious Premier League title challenge this season.
The Gunners dropped further points in midweek to fall down to third place in the table, nine points adrift of leaders - and weekend opponents - Chelsea.
Defeat to Watford on Tuesday was the first suffered by Mustafi since joining in the summer, and the centre-back has echoed manager Arsene Wenger's thoughts by claiming that Arsenal were not mentally prepared for the match.
"Personally I think the first thing you do is blame yourself first," he told Sky Sports News. "The most important thing is to look what you have done wrong in the game. Then blame others. The players are on the pitch, we blame ourselves before we blame the manager.
"We have to take that responsibility and then answer. It can only be mental. We know we can play better and we were sloppy at the start. It's all about mentality, being there from the first minute and knowing the Premier League is a difficult competition and teams are going to go for the opportunity they have, which Watford did.
"They ran at us and defended well. We were not clever or concentrated enough to stop them. We were not there, they ran all over us, and we cannot be happy with that at home. We have to bounce back, it's a big game against Chelsea, we will try to be there from the first minute to the last second."
Arsenal have lost three of their last eight league games - as many defeats as they suffered in their previous 30 top-flight matches.
Daniel Lewis
