Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has admitted that his side found it "difficult" coping with Manchester City, having fallen to successive 3-0 defeats to their opponents.
Five days on from the EFL Cup final loss at Wembley Stadium, the Gunners went down by the same scoreline in Thursday evening's Premier League clash on home soil.
Bernardo Silva, David Silva and Leroy Sane all netted inside the opening 33 minutes for City - the first time that Arsenal have conceded three times in the first half of a home top-flight game.
January signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had a penalty saved shortly after half time, and Wenger concedes that his players simply did not have the confidence to drag themselves back into the contest.
"I knew the first half would be difficult for us after Sunday," he told Sky Sports News. "We needed at least to come in level at half time but City took advantage of our lack of confidence.
"The team put a huge effort in but they're going through a different period and their quality made it a difficult game for us.
"The goals were preventable. I don't think we can take away from the individual quality of the goals but it was soft defending on our side. After half time we needed the penalty to go in to have a slight change to come back so that was a blow to us."
Arsenal stay sixth in the table and 10 points adrift of the top four, with a trip to Brighton & Hove Albion up next on Sunday afternoon.
