Graham Potter 'under the weather' after long Premier League season - 'I'll be happy to take some time off'

The 2-0 defeat at Arsenal this afternoon meant Albion finished 16th in the table.

"I feel a bit under the weather," Potter admitted. "It's been a long fight.

"That's how the Premier League is. I'll be happy to take some time off.

"As I said to the boys, reflect, analyse, rest and recover. It will be the start of the season before we know it.

"They have been going non-stop for 16 months. It's so important they have a breather, recharge and come back stronger."

Potter said his side 'were not as good as we normally are, without being bad' against Arsenal.

He added: "That can happen against a good side with a lot of attacking quality.

"We have had a few problems with injuries and others missing. The numbers are low.

"A game against Manchester City has an effect. There's also the opposition on the pitch who played well.

"I thought the boys tried, there was no lack of effort but they weren't quite good enough to get anything from the game."

Potter said he brought on Aaron Connolly to inject some pace into an attack, which was missing the injured Danny Welbeck and suspended Neal Maupay.

He said: "We weren't so happy with that first half. We were not quite as good as we like to be so we changed it a little bit.

"[Connolly] did OK. He had a good chance where he normally hits the target and that could have made the game a bit different."

On the absence of Welbeck and Maupay, he added: "It's the same as Joel Veltman, Tariq Lamptey and Solly March. They're important players.

"If you have them, you can rotate. That's life and how it is. You can't use that as an excuse. We did our best but weren't good enough today."