Birmingham City<\/a> was the cause of their disappointing season.<\/p>\nGoing into the final at Wembley, Arsenal were still in all four competitions, but the shock defeat began a run which saw them lose in the FA Cup to Manchester United and the Champions League to Barcelona before falling away in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
The Swiss international has played 34 times this season for the Gunners, in part due to the continuing absence of first-choice centre-back Thomas Vermaelen, and he highlighted the loss to Birmingham as the turning point in their season.<\/p>\n
“If you look at the mental state of the team, everything changed from when we lost the League Cup final, that was a big turning point,\u201d he told Arsenal TV Online<\/em>.<\/p>\n“Before, everything was going well. The team was on fire. We were not losing in the league and had beaten Barcelona at home, then this happened.<\/p>\n
“We were expected to win, maybe too much and got surprised on the day.<\/p>\n
“After we lost the Barcelona game, then at Manchester in the FA Cup, so it was a lot to take.<\/p>\n
“When you are playing for all four trophies and you lose three straight away, it is difficult to take.”<\/p>\n
Arsenal\u2019s failures mean that it is six years since they last won a trophy, but Djourou wants the Gunners to show their quality by damaging United\u2019s title chances on Sunday.<\/p>\n
He added: “We know our record at home has not been that great lately, because we drew too many games, but we want to put things in order at home.<\/p>\n
“When Arsenal play our game, no-one can stop us so we have to keep going and fight for each other, to give everything, that is where the difference is.<\/p>\n
“We have done well against the big teams at home, and United are a great team – but we just have to show everyone we are better than them.”<\/p>\n
And Djourou has joined his manager, Arsene Wenger, in arguing that Arsenal\u2019s performance in the league has been better than most people envisaged at the start of the season.<\/p>\n
“People were not expecting us to be that close to the title this season,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Of course we are looking for that trophy which everyone wants and deserves, but looking at the bigger picture to be in the Champions League every year is a good achievement because not many teams do that all the time.<\/p>\n
“It is tough to qualify for the Champions League when you look at what the other teams have done.<\/p>\n
“We just have to keep going from here, from strength to strength.<\/p>\n
“It is normal with a winning mentality to feel disappointed for the team, now we have to bounce back because things are not really settled yet.<\/p>\n
“Chelsea have got in front of us, and Manchester City are behind, so we just need to keep going. We have big games and need to fight until the end.”<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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![\"Johan](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/63502f2033776_news.jpg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n