Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at Bournemouth coupled with a stunning 4-3 win for Liverpool against league leaders Manchester City has left Arsenal with eight points to make up on fourth place, with north London rivals Tottenham also five points ahead.
Arsenal finished outside the top four for the first time in Arsene Wenger’s reign last season and, having won just one of their last five league games and with star player Alexis Sanchez bound for Manchester, their hopes of returning this year look increasingly faint.
“The situation becomes very dangerous for us because we want to be in the top four at least,” Cech told the club website. “When you lose games like we have so far this season away from home, where we were in a position to win, you leave yourself a mountain to climb.
“With every game comes a bit more pressure, so hopefully we will manage to get the ready for the next one, win it and kick from there.”
Arsenal’s fifth away loss of the season bore all the trademarks of the Gunners struggles on the road as they frittered away their best moments and crumbled whenever a struggling Bournemouth side applied even a modicum of pressure.
Hector Bellerin had struck seven minutes into the second half to hand them a lead that was soon wasted as Callum Wilson beat Cech to Ryan Fraser’s cross for the equaliser before Jordon Ibe slammed the winner moments later.
Cech admitted he was to blame for Bournemouth’s equaliser but claimed the Gunners had been more unlucky than uninspiring.
“Obviously the first one I’m disappointed with because I thought I was going to cut the cross on time,” he said. “Wilson arrived faster in front of me. It’s a matter of split seconds but I think I should have done better on that.
“The second one had an element of luck. It was a good long ball behind but it was everybody’s ball and it fell right in front of the player and he managed to shoot it very hard and squeeze it through my body.
“In that one, we were a bit unlucky. They rode their luck, they worked very hard all day and in the end, they got a big reward.”