Dennis Bergkamp believes Arsenal need to toughen up and learn from their bad performances.

The Dutch striker said on his personal website that the mis-firing Gunners need to start working on their shortcomings.

He said: "Really, we should have taken a step forward after last season but that just hasn't happened.

"We went into the season pretty optimistic and hoped to challenge Manchester United for the Premiership but that's not going to happen now. To make it worse, not even a second place finish seems a particularly safe bet for us at the moment.

"We're competing for that with Liverpool but also with the likes of Sunderland and Ipswich, who are normally considered lesser sides. We shouldn't really be competing with them.

"I feel sometimes we maybe take it a little bit too easy when we get a bad result.

"It's all too easy sometimes to just say 'Well, at least we got a point, let's move on to the next game.' Maybe we should be harder on ourselves and keep focusing on what our shortcomings are. We need to be a bit tougher on ourselves. Then, maybe we can turn this form around."