Glenn Hoddle slammed Arsenal captain Bukayo Saka’s response to the disappointing Premier League draw with Wolves.
Arsenal blew a two-goal lead to attract 2-2 with Premier League basement boys Wolves, who had just nine points from 26 games before the sport.
Saka, captaining the Gunners within the absence of the injured Martin Odegaard, fired Arsenal ahead inside five minutes with a glancing header from Declan Rice’s cross.
Despite not being anywhere near their best, Arsenal doubled their lead after half-time through Piero Hincapie and appeared to be cruising towards one other win.
Three points would have taken Arsenal seven clear of second-placed Manchester City but Wolves produced an unlikely comeback.
Hugo Bueno gave the relegation-doomed side hope with an outstanding strike on the hour mark before Tom Edozie’s injury-time strike earned Wolves just their tenth point of the season.
Saka faced as much as the media after Arsenal’s desperately disappointing draw, admitting the Arsenal dressing room was ‘very flat’.
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‘It’s very flat,’ he told Sky Sports. ‘I’m very dissatisfied with the result and particularly how we played within the second half, it’s removed from the extent that we’ve set this season.
‘It’s time for us to reflect on the few performances and just fix the problems immediately so we are able to get back to winning games and happening a run and construct momentum because we’ve lost that a bit at once.’
Asked whether he and his teammates were ‘feeling the pressure’ as Arsenal chase a primary Premier League title in 22 years, Saka added: ‘No, I don’t take into consideration all of that.
‘I just think we want to simply get back to our level, just do the fundamentals right. And we’ve got good enough quality on this team to win games, especially the games where we’ve been dropping points recently.
‘We just have to fix that and that’s all our focus is at once.’
Arsenal legend Martin Keown said he ‘couldn’t disagree with anything’ Saka said during his post-match interview.
‘I can’t disagree with anything that he’s saying but what he’s also saying is they’re not giving up,’ Keown said on Premier League Productions.
‘I feel he can be giving more in his next performances because they need to get up.’
But Tottenham legend Hoddle criticised Saka’s interview, saying: ‘That’s interesting, that, because he was the skipper tonight.
‘For me, he was very honest, very honest there saying they should do higher… blah blah blah. But his demeanour for me wasn’t right.
‘Your demeanour must be a bit of bit more up, he was very flat, very flat.’
Discussing the sport as a complete and Arsenal’s wobbling title charge, Hoddle added: ‘I take a look at Arsenal against Brentford and Wolves and I just feel they’re beginning to doubt themselves.
‘A couple of months ago they weren’t doing that, they were authoritative and were saying, “we’re Arsenal and we’re going to win the title”.
‘But they’re doubting themselves and now they’re under pressure and it’s all concerning the mentality, they should be strong and together to return again.
‘It’s not a crossroads for Arsenal but they need to begin again, go again. They’ve got to go again but there’s a doubt of their minds now, there’s definitely a doubt and they’ve got an enormous couple of games ahead for them.
‘Unless they get a result on the weekend they can be in trouble.’
Arsenal’s next task is a large north London derby against Tottenham, who sacked Thomas Frank following their last game.
Speaking after the Wolves draw, Gunners boss Mikel Arteta said: ‘Incredibly dissatisfied that we gave two points away. I feel we want to fault ourselves and provides credit to Wolves.
‘But what we done within the second half was nowhere near our standards that we’ve to play to be able to win a game within the Premier League.
‘There are specific things, certain basics that today we’re very removed from our level, and if you don’t perform you’ll be able to get punished, and we got punished and we’ve to simply accept the hits because that may occur if you end up on top.
‘Certain basics we’ve to will we did them so poorly one after the opposite. After which you may have no dominance, no control in the sport.’
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