Mikel Arteta tells his Arsenal stars to step up and addresses Vieira's claim

Mikel Arteta called on his Arsenal team to show just why they are potential Premier League winners after their defeat to Manchester United was met by boos.

The Gunners thought they had rescued themselves a point when substitute Mikel Merino struck in the 84th minute — before Matheus Cunha scored the visitors’ winner three minutes later.

The north London club are four points clear of Manchester City at the top, but scuppered the chance of increasing the gap to seven after a third consecutive league match where they have dropped points.

It follows goalless draws to both Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

When asked about his reaction to the boos, Arteta said: ‘It doesn't matter, we have to do more, there's nothing else. We have to do our very best.

‘When you do that, you can rest in peace. Today we really certainly tried to do our very best, but we weren't efficient enough against a team that is very well organised, and we got punished because of our own mistakes as well.

‘We have to understand that we all want to win, and the crowd is trying to be behind the team to make the best decisions and to win the game, and we need to go through that.’

Gunners Invincibles winner Patrick Vieira questioned the mental strength of this Arsenal team after a defeat which included an uncharacteristic Martin Zubimendi error in the build-up to Bryan Mbeumo’s goal.

Arteta added: ‘That's fine. I mean, we accept every opinion, and they will have the right reason to say it.

‘At the end, we have to show the mental strength that we have on the pitch when it comes to a match day.

‘We were absolutely brilliant in Milan (against Inter Milan in midweek), and today we weren’t that good.

‘I don't know if it was mental, because of how much they played, but because we were poor, especially technically in certain aspects of the game, against a team that when you make those mistakes, they can punish you big time. That was the difference.’