New account rating shock

I've been on Lichess for about 5 years now, racking up just over 10,000 games. My blitz elo fluctuates a bit but stays largely between 2050 and 2150. I recently created a new account to mess about in arena tournaments and suddenly found myself losing consistently to 1800/1900s. My rating is starting to stabilize on this new account around 1950, 100-200 elo below my main account.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it purely psychological or with a new account am I being put against dodgy accounts? Would love to hear others' thoughts!