Mikel Arteta admitted his side lacked the cutting edge needed to see off rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the north London derby.
A brace from Son Heung-min allowed Spurs to leave the Emirates Stadium with a well-deserved 2-2 draw, maintaining Ange Postecoglou’s unbeaten start to life as a Premier League manager.
Arsenal also remain unbeaten, having won four and drawn two of their opening six games, but the Gunners were left frustrated by their inability to hold onto the lead twice given to them by Cristian Romero’s own goal and Bukayo Saka’s penalty.
Jorginho, a half-time substitute for the injured Declan Rice, was directly at fault for Spurs’ second goal, and Gabriel Jesus was guilty of a glaring miss in the first half after robbing James Maddison of possession of the edge of his own penalty area.
Those passages of play, and Arsenal‘s failure to break Spurs down for a third time, led Arteta to admit after the game that his side lacked the necessary quality to pick up all three points.
“We are very disappointed not to earn the three points, that’s for sure. Especially when you go in front twice in the game and have the opportunity to win it,” the Spaniard said.
“Especially the moments that we conceded the goals. We had control of the game, could have made it 2-0 with Gabi and then you concede the goal and you have to bounce back. We did and scored the goal but it’s a shame that within a minute you concede the other one.
“I think that affected the team emotionally quite a lot and we lacked some composure to make more passes in the final third. It became a more transitional game that is a risky one to play against them. We pushed in the last 15-20 minutes but we lacked the quality in the final pass to win the game.”
Arteta did go on to praise the character and endeavour of his players, but ultimately recognised that his team lacked the necessary tools to put to bed an improving Spurs side.
“In big games both boxes are so important and you have to put those chances away. We didn’t and we also had some errors like the one we concede [from],” he continued.
“Then it becomes difficult to win but the effort, energy and attitude the boys put in was phenomenal. Today we lacked a certain composure on the ball to be more dominant, get set and get a structure in the game that we needed against a really good Spurs side.”
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