Arsenal’s top-four hopes suffered a major dent on Monday night when they suffered a 3-0 hammering at the hands of Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
The Gunners are now fifth in the league table and it has given clubs such as Tottenham, West Ham and Manchester United a massive boost to their hopes of sneaking into the Premier League’s top four.
Dixon stressed that given the good form Arsenal were in and the general euphoria around the team, the senior players should have anticipated the chance of becoming complacent.
He insisted that the senior pros inside the dressing room should have anticipated that Crystal Palace were going to be a tough game and they should have tried to prepare the team for that.
Asked why Arsenal never got used to Crystal Palace’s high energy, Dixon said on Premier League TV post match: “It shouldn’t have been a surprise, expecting them to come out with high energy and high press but they just looked like they weren’t ready.
“Sometimes you get those games but that’s why you look around to your senior players.
“When things are going well, you are winning games, the fans are talking about you and the pundits are saying Arsenal are getting fourth that’s for me is the warning sign when a senior pro in the dressing room goes we have won nothing, stop celebrating and stop all the cheering.
“You get peaks and troughs in a season when things are going well, you ride those waves but as soon as you get a smell of something in a dressing room and you go, ‘you know what?’
“That fixture is a red line itself, Palace away when they are in that form? They should have been drilling each other in the dressing room, talking about the possibility of getting thumped.
“And they got thumped tonight and that for [Mikel] Arteta will be really disappointed.”
Arsenal will look to bounce back with a win when they host Brighton at the Emirates on Saturday.
