Sunday 4 March 2018 19:37, UK
Arsene Wenger used a bizarre analogy to sum up Arsenal's current plight after their defeat to Brighton, saying the team is "naked completely" and need to "find a shirt and try to put it on again".
The Gunners slumped to a fourth loss in a row in all competitions as they were beaten 2-1 by the Seagulls on Sunday.
Defeat leaves Arsenal 13 points outside the top four and puts more pressure on Wenger.
But the Arsenal boss was reluctant to criticise his players, saying afterwards: "It's difficult at the moment for me to get into any negative assessment.
"The team needs more support at the moment. Tough, objective judgement as well, but when you struggle for confidence it's difficult.
"When you have just the trousers on it's easy to take the trousers off as well. When you're naked completely you have to find a shirt and try to put it on again and then you're dressed normally again.
"The environment around the team is always to put them more down."
The Gunners were 2-0 down inside 28 minutes against Brighton and could manage to pull only one goal back through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
The current run is Wenger's worst in 22 years in charge of Arsenal and he said: "It's not easy, but I have enough experience and enough desire to turn things around and I must say that, at the moment, when you need to stay in the game we are making a few mistakes at the wrong moments.
"We have to stick together and focus. We have no other solution."
