Arsenal's hopes of winning the title are severely damaged by their setback at the Emirates.

"Very, very angry" about Arsenal's performance in their 1-0 loss to West Ham, Mikel Arteta said they "deserve to feel the pain" while Paul Merson stated that their chances of winning the title are "one million per cent" over.

In a match that also saw Myles Lewis-Skelly, an Arsenal substitute, sent off for failing to cut the lead to Liverpool, Jarrod Bowen's close-range header before halftime proved to be the game-winning goal.

Arteta, who started Mikel Merino as a substitute striker after his two-goal cameo against Leicester, stressed that Arsenal's attacking ailments were not a justification for their subpar performance. Arne Slot's team is still eight points ahead of their trip to Manchester City on Super Sunday.

"Very disappointed, obviously very angry as well," he said in his press conference. "I think you have to congratulate West Ham for the victory and the game that they played.

However, there were a number of things on our end that we never managed to do right, which prevented us from building up enough momentum and play sequences with constructive activity to put them in danger.

"I never thought we were performing at the level and standard we need.

"We must be [irate]." Since I bear a large portion of the blame for our failure to meet the levels today, I sincerely hope that we are. As a result, I am furious."

After failing to bolster their offence during the January transfer window, Arsenal lost Kai Havertz to a season-ending knee injury earlier this month. Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka, and Gabriel Jesus are also absent; the last will be absent for the remainder of the campaign, similar to Havertz.

He responded, "No, no, no," when asked if the performance supported his January remarks that he wanted a new striker. "I believe we need to examine ourselves to see what we can improve on.

"The way we run, the way we want it, the will and the desire. There is no doubt about that. However, it is insufficient at that level.

"You have to deliver and it has to be with a lot of quality to break a really good team down to win many more duels than we have done and to put action that can end up in a really threatening moment for the position to win the game and today we haven't done that."

"It's not in our hands," Arteta said when asked if they had a chance of overtaking Liverpool in the fight for the championship. In my opinion, the performance and outcome from today are the things that we have control over and that we didn't execute as well as we could have."

Arteta encouraged his team to "feel the pain" of the outcome as they attempt to recover when Arsenal visits Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Wednesday. "We have to feel the pain, we deserve it," he stated.

"We must endure hardship. Make sure we return on Monday with the bite and the rage still in our stomachs for Wednesday after suffering for twenty-four or forty-eight hours."

Merson: Now I'm worried about Arsenal.

Merson, a former midfielder for Arsenal, stated that the loss eliminates their chances of defeating Liverpool to win the championship, despite Arteta's pleas for his team to use the outcome as incentive to rally.

On Football Saturday, he declared, "[The title race is over] one million per cent," "Liverpool is too good for Arsenal to catch." They don't have any forward. A 17-year-old boy in Nwaneri, who has a promising future, had a difficult day.

"I think [Leandro] Trossard is a bit-part player. Arsenal has no chance whatsoever of winning the league. Arsenal will not win even if Liverpool defeats Man City 7-0.

"They will struggle till the conclusion of the season, based on what I've witnessed today. They will be lucky to win half of their remaining 12 games.

"All of a sudden, it's heads or tails in the PSV Champions League match. They don't have anything upfront. They have no teeth. It takes skill to be a center-forward; you can't just toss someone up there. I would be amazed if they were to defeat Nottingham Forest.

Regarding Arsenal's 2-0 victory against Leicester last weekend, he continued, "Let's be honest, Arsenal were fortunate last week." "They gave Leicester a respectable appearance at 0-0.

"Merino enters the game and scores two excellent goals. However, there aren't many centre forwards, therefore it's a challenging position to play.

It's mind-blowing to me to just put somebody up there and for them to work their magic.

"He had an amazing appearance. I'm not trying to be disrespectful; he plays holding midfield. That is simply not possible. Now I'm worried about Arsenal.