Arteta answers Henry after his emotional jibe at Arsenal

Mikel Arteta has responded to Thierry Henry’s claims that Arsenal have dropped crucial points because they cannot control their emotions.

The Gunners are now just four points ahead of Manchester City after enjoying an eight-point gap for some time. To Henry, part of Arsenal’s collapse has been their lack of calmness, and the retired striker wants his former club to control themselves in difficult times as they chase the Premier League title.

"I don’t know, it’s just an opinion," Arteta answered when asked if Henry’s comments were fair.

When he was pressed on whether the players needed to get out of their emotions and be ruthless in matches, Arteta said; "Well, you have to be.

"When you have a big situation to score a goal, you have to put it in the net because the margins are so small.

"And you have to defend much better than we did, especially the second goal and how the first one was produced. But this is as well one of the individual situations that can happen in football."

He also defended his players on claims they might be bottling up the title race; "These are opinions in the end, and we have to respect that," he added.

"When you set the standards and expectations really high, you have to maintain them, and to win every game in the Premier League is extremely difficult.

"It’s not like we lost five games in the last six and we are in this situation; it’s that you draw two matches and you play two very difficult fixtures away from home.

"But when you are there, you are expected to win, to win, to win, because there’s a necessity to get the Premier League in this championship, and you have to win almost every single game. Those are the demands, and you have to accept it."

Arsenal will be in action on Friday when they take on Southampton.