Mikel Arteta ‘doesn’t want to take responsibility’ for Arsenal’s collapse after defeat against Manchester City saw the Gunners lose their grip in the title race
10:57, 20 Apr 2026Updated 11:06, 20 Apr 2026
Mikel Arteta
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Mikel Arteta is feeling the heat after Arsenal threw away their Premier League stranglehold(Image: Getty Images)
Mikel Arteta "doesn’t want to take responsibility" for Arsenal’s collapse after Sunday’s defeat at Manchester City blew the Premier League title race wide open.
Arsenal were on the charge to win a historic Quadruple come May but four successive domestic losses have made the Gunners potentially ending the season trophyless again a major possibility.
In the space of a week, Arsenal’s nine point lead at the top of the table has been cut to just three with City having a game in hand against Burnley on Wednesday. The scars of previous years' near misses are opening up again and Arteta is certainly feeling the heat.
Mikel Arteta
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Mikel Arteta is 'blaming his team' for their season collapsing
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Speaking to OLBG, body language expert Darren Stanton said Arteta does not want to bear the blame for his side’s collapse in recent weeks.
He said: “Mikel Arteta looked anxious and full of stress before the game. “His smiles weren’t genuine. He looked tense. Seeing him now in his post-match press conference, there’s now anger in the mix too.
“Arteta looks angry that he’s been put in this position again, like we saw after the Bournemouth loss, and unfortunately for the Arsenal players I don’t think their manager is wanting to take responsibility for what has happened.
Mikel Arteta
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The pressure is clearly getting to Mikel Arteta(Image: Getty Images)
“He wants to shift the responsibility onto his team for how things have gone rather than accepting accountability himself. We see him going back to what we call lip suppression which is where he is physically holding back what he feels internally so he doesn’t speak out of turn.
“He’s not saying what he really thinks when he’s asked about the morale of the team or other questions.”
Stanton added that Arteta has exposed himself as not the right fit for this Arsenal squad under the stress of the title race. “There's something in psychology called internal and external representation,” added Stanton.
Pep Guardiola
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Manchester City have resurrected their title charge(Image: Getty Images)
“What that means is certain people in life have to have feedback and they’ll know they have done well because of the result or success recognised by others.
“Other people are what we call internally referenced which means they trust their own instincts and measurements for what success means.
“If you mix internal and external people, it's not always a good thing, so it makes you wonder whether those players need to hear that they've done well or not so well, whereas Arteta appears to be a manager who assumes that they should already know. It's an interesting dynamic actually. This happens a lot in business.”
The defeat at City has left Arteta looking like a man who no longer thinks he will be in charge at the Emirates next season. “For whatever the reasons are, Arteta has looked super stressed,” Stanton said.
“Unless he can pull the hat out of the rabbit out of the hat in the last few games, he knows they won’t win anything, and it looks like he thinks he's going to be a goner too in his own job.
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“I think the pressure's mounting even more now. I think how Arsenal respond to this latest setback in the next couple of games, and whether they can perform in the Champions League too, will tell us a lot but I think Arteta believes trophies will be the deciding factor.
"If he fails to win even one this season, he looks like a man who already thinks he will be sent packing.
“The next few weeks are going to make all the difference to his career as a manager and whether he stays at Arsenal or not. We see distinct signs of pressure, stress and anger. He’s searching his feelings for answers that he is struggling to find.”