Mikel Arteta has urged his Arsenal squad to "take the bullets" as Arsenal face mounting criticism for a dreadful season to date and defiantly vowed to lead by example, insisting: "My chest is here, hit me guys."
Arteta is under pressure after the Gunners made their worst start to a campaign since 1974. Sunday's 1-0 defeat to Burnley meant they lost four consecutive League home games for the first time in 61 years and they sit just five points above the relegation zone in 15th place.
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It is a remarkable fall from grace after Arteta secured an FA Cup triumph in August to cap his first season in charge but he sought to rally his squad ahead of Wednesday's visit of high-flying Southampton.
"I feel the pressure all the time," he said. "When we had those [good] spells, everything has not been beautiful. In the last few months of last summer there were a lot of difficult moments, believe me. It wasn't everything nice and easy and enjoyable.
"But obviously when you are winning you create a different mood and then the pressure once you win is to win again. And the pressure is always going to exist.
"I prefer that pressure when you are always thinking about winning and going into the next trophy. But this is our reality now and we have to face it. We have to face it being brave, fighting and no-one giving up or anything because it is no time to hide. It is time to put your face and body on the line.
"At the moment, I'm sorry, but we have to take the bullets. We are not winning football matches and you have to put your chest there and hit me, because you have the right to hit me because I am not winning. What else can I do? Put me head down, work harder and try to do things better and improve. It is how we have to approach things in my opinion.
"It is natural [criticism comes to the manager], I accept it, it is part of the job. When you are not getting results at the end of the day, it is the manager who has the maximum responsibility to deal with it. That's why I accept it.
"You can say whatever you want to explain but at the end you have to win football matches and this club is too big to accept this many losses in the last weeks. So my chest is here and hit me guys."
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Technical director Edu has publicly defended the job Arteta has done and the 38-year-old himself is under no illusions of the magnitude of the task he inherited when his predecessor Unai Emery was sacked last November.
"What I know, and we all knew, when I took the job here that it wasn't a quick fix at all," he added. "There were too many things that needed to be resolved, too many big decisions to make, a lot of changes that are happening and this takes time. Are we pleased with the results? Absolutely not, I am the first one who is angry and frustrated because I think as well that we deserve much more than we have at the moment but it is our own fault and we need to look to the future, and know as well that the present is also really, really important at the moment.
"I want to think that we are in a blip. The way we are losing the football matches makes me believe that, but we need to start to win because if not you start dropping and dropping in the table. Obviously that is not the situation we want to be in."