Tottenham star gives brutally honest assessment after Arsenal defeat

Dejan Kulusevski admitted that Arsenal are a long way ahead of Tottenham in terms of mentality after defeat in the north London derby on Sunday afternoon.

At Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Arsenal jumped out to a 3-0 lead and scored three goals in the first half. However, the home team rallied strongly in the second half.

Spurs had a lot of hope thanks to goals from Cristian Romero and Son Heung-min, but the Gunners held on for a significant win that keeps them atop the Premier League standings.

Even though the game was extremely close, Kulusevski was critical of his team’s performance against their neighborhood rivals, stating that they must become more mature and disciplined as a unit.

‘They are much more disciplined. Much more disciplined and a little bit more mature,’ the Spurs winger said of Arsenal. That’s the area where we currently need improvement.

They score when cornering the ball. We give in. It’s really not that hard. Additionally, you can see that the second goal is too simple. Kai Havertz finds Bukayo Saka with a long pass, and the score is 2-0. Of course, here is where we need to improve.

In sports, the greater picture always matters. Then, nevertheless, we must accept accountability. We must prevail in games. We must get better. It goes without saying that people will be disappointed if we don’t accomplish it. You can’t give up ambitions that quickly. We have to get better. The football is really excellent. But in this case, we must get better.

‘Mentality is important. It is all in life. That is the only thing that matters. The head. You can be how good you want in football but you’ve got to be strong in every situation. Of course, they, Arsenal have obviously done that in the last period. They fight to win the league. We still have to do that. We are improving in other areas. We still lack a little bit in that part.

It’s not about ambition, in my opinion. Everyone wants to win, in my opinion, but doing so requires making a lot of sacrifices. It’s quite a bit. Speaking of mindset, do you believe it is simple to play 3-2 against the team that is ahead after trailing 3-0 at the half? That’s mindset as well. The second half was amazing.

The only requirement is that you display it for ninety minutes, yet we are presenting it. It is challenging otherwise. We are displaying it fragmentarily, but we need to do so considerably more regularly.

In the closing moments of the match, as Tottenham pushed for an equalizer, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta acknowledged he was pleading with God for help.

The Spaniard remarked, “I was praying when Spurs put the ball in our box.” The game was quite emotional, the stadium is a pretty tough place to be, and the opposition was a tough side to play against. We led 3-0 and were in complete control of the game at the break. In the second half, we continued to dominate and create opportunities. Then a single mistake occurs, sending a message to your brain.

We were handling the circumstances well; one more [goal] and it was full steam ahead. They can commit a lot of players upfront because they have the players and the quality. We had to endure hardship and respond, and I’m glad we did.