Declan Rice questions Arsenal's mentality after crushing Fulham defeat

Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice has admitted the Gunners must work on their mentality after Sunday's surprise Premier League defeat to Fulham.

Mikel Arteta's side have won just one of their last six games in all competitions and are without a win in their last three league outings - a run which has seen them fall from first to fourth since Christmas.

After battling to a 1-1 draw with Liverpool, Arsenal were shockingly wasteful in a 1-0 defeat to West Ham United, but Arteta acknowledged this latest loss to Fulham needed to be judged separately because of just how poor the team was.

Rice reflected to Sky Sports: "It is not good enough. The standards set over the course of the season have not been met in the last two games.

"We let the fans down and we let ourselves down. We need to take more control. We need to have more self-belief, more desire, the mentality needs to be better.

"That’s where we need to demand more from each other. We are fighting up the top end of the table and the goals that we have conceded, it cannot happen.

"It is about knowing you’re going to fight for every ball. We need to push each other more when times get tough. In this league there is no room to mess up. There are so many good teams around you and obviously we want to be pushing up the top end of the table."

Arteta dismissed suggestions that the team's recent slump should be addressed in the transfer market and instead remained loyal to his current crop of players.

"We need to improve. We need to win games and in order to do that we need to win games," he said. "In order to do that we need to do it with players that after 20 league games, we have the chance to be the best in the league with these players. They are really good and we're going to continue to work with them."

READ THE LATEST ARSENAL NEWS, TRANSFER RUMOURS & GOSSIP