Arsenal’s Andrey Arshavin leaps to Aaron Ramsey’s defence

Andrey Arshavin has leapt to the defence of Aaron Ramsey after the Wales midfielder came under fire for his performance in Arsenal’s 3-2 defeat at Swansea City on Sunday.

The 21-year-old midfielder was on the receiving end of criticism from some Arsenal fans during the game via Twitter for his display in South Wales – but his Russian team-mate insists the Gunners must shoulder the blame for the loss as a team.

“The fans shouldn’t blame everything on him,” Arshavin said on his website. “We all deserve criticism. It’s the team that loses not the player. Now we have to think about the upcoming game against Manchester United. We have extra motivation for this match.”

Sunday’s result marked consecutive league defeats for Arsène Wenger’s men, and Arshavin blamed a lack of concentration for the disappointing defeat that leaves them four points adrift of fourth-placed Chelsea.

“We started off brightly. We were leading and shouldn’t have let our opponent equalise so easily,” he continued. “But after this the game could have gone either way. They wanted to score as much as we did.

“We lost concentration. And the fact that the opponent was able to restore the winning score quickly influenced our psychological state.”