Arsene Wenger has ordered his smarting stars to channel their anger into making sure they sign off the year with a flourish.
The frustrated Arsenal boss was furious with the 3-1 defeat by Manchester United after his side dominated possession, had 33 efforts at goal but could only find a way past David De Gea once.
And as he prepares the Gunners for Thursday's Europa League group finale at home to BATE Borisov in the Europa League and next Sunday’s trip to Southampton, Wenger is demanding a reaction.
“I believe the result has to make us angry and even more determined. If I am a player, and I think with what we produced, we have a huge potential, and we lose the game, we cannot accept that.
“De Gea is an outstanding goalkeeper and I don’t want to take anything away. But we had situations, despite De Gea, where we should have scored.
“But I take a lot of positives and I feel sorry for the players — that’s why I’m angry. Especially when you produce that quality of performance.
“We have lost games here against Man United where we didn’t deserve anything. But what makes you angry is that you produce that performance and in the end you have nothing to show for it.
“That’s very difficult to accept.”
Despite raging at the defensive mistakes of Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi and inefficiency of his strikers, Wenger refused to blame individuals: “Look, I am not here to especially blame people. I am blaming nobody — I am blaming myself as always.
“I just say, I want Arsenal Football Club to win. When the performance is of that quality, we have to be efficient. We are in this job to be efficient, you know. So I blame first myself.”
Although they are languishing seven points behind second placed United, Wenger is refusing to throw in the title towel.
Asked if he’s written off the title, like Tottenham rival Mauricio Pochettino, the Frenchman snapped: “I am not Pochettino, I am Arsene Wenger.
“I am here to fight as long as I can, as long as mathematically it’s possible you have to fight, you cannot give any other message out.”