'A great team does not lose three in a row'

Sebastien Squillaci has called on Arsenal to respond like a “great team” at Wolves on Wednesday.

The Frenchman admitted the goal that consigned his side to defeat against Newcastle at the weekend was avoidable but offered no excuses and claimed it was not “catastrophic” for their title aspirations.

Instead the 30-year-old simply placed the emphasis on Molineux in midweek.

“No [I am not worried],” he said. “We’re still third in the Premier League and top of our group in the Champions League.

“But when you play for a team like Arsenal, after two defeats you need to respond. A great team doesn’t concede three consecutive defeats. So the next game will be really important, we need to show that Arsenal are a great team. We need to respond well at Wolves on Wednesday.

“It’s too early [to talk about our title chance having gone]. We lost a game but it’s not catastrophic. The season is long but, for sure, we must not lose anymore points at home. We know that home results are very important to be champions.

“Fatigue is not an excuse. Lots of players didn’t play against Shakhtar. We just need to talk about what didn’t work and then work on it.

“We’re disappointed because we didn’t let them have too many opportunities. We didn’t play a great Newcastle. But they scored this goal, which we could have avoided.

“It is a shame because we had the opportunity to get back on Chelsea and Manchester United and also make a gap on teams behind us.”