9th March Arteta blames the ball

Having previously blamed everything under the sun for Arsenals poor run of form, Gunners manager Mikel Arteta's litany of excuses reached a new low this evening when he blamed the ball for dropping points against Manchester United.

Havign previously blamed injuries, suspensions,  too many games, too few games, players fitness, players form, player distractions, the pitch was too big, the pitch was too small, the grass was too long, the grass was too short, the grass was too green, the grass was not green enough, too much travel, too little travel, the sun, the rain, the wind, the referee, the linesman, VAR, oposition fans, their own fans, TV pundts, the media and Barry down the Frog and Trumpet, today Arteta claimed it was the ball.

Speaking in an exclusive to Grace Under Pressure's very own armchair pundit, Mikel Arteta revealed that is was the size, shape, colour, surface texture, air content and overall roundness of the ball that was now at fault. 

When revelaed that Manchester United played with the same ball Arteta pointed to the match statistics which revealed that the 'Arse' had been in possesion  for 66% of the playing time and thus were twice as affected by the unplayable ball as Manchester United. 

At the time of going to press Grace Under Pressure in unable to confirm but expects Mikel Arteta will have something else to blame next week having had a sneak preview of the new football boots the Arsenal team are set to wear.