Arsenal Must Take Blame For Villa Fightback – Arteta

After poor defense prevented them from keeping pace with Premier League leaders Liverpool, Mikkel Arteta acknowledged that Arsenal must take responsibility for their defamatory 2-2 draw against Aston Villa.

After Liverpool’s 2-0 win at Brentford earlier on Saturday, the Gunners were left with no margin for error when they faced Villa at the Emirates Stadium.

After Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz scored to take a two-goal lead into the 55th minute, Arteta’s side were on course to regain their lead over Liverpool by four points.

However, Arsenal fell apart in the second half as Youri Tielemans cut the deficit before Ollie Watkins, a ‘boy’s fan, scored the equalizer.

Arsenal’s hopes of winning their first title since 2004 were hampered by the fact that Liverpool are now six points clear and have a game in hand over the second-placed north Londoners.

Arteta acknowledged that Arsenal could not have prevented Villa from regaining control of the situation.

“Pride at the way the boys played and competed, the third time in six days. To deliver that dominance, that performance, they were outstanding. We deserved much more, that’s clear”, he said.

“But the way we defended, especially the second goal, can’t be part of our game.

If you want to win consistently, you can’t just concede the two goals. It’s nowhere near the standards of what we demand. “

In addition to the FA Cup third round defeat against 10-man Manchester United and a 2-0 League Cup semi-final first leg loss to Newcastle, Arsenal have won just one of their last five games overall.

Arsenal’s inconsistent form came back to life again on Wednesday with a 2-1 victory over north London rivals Tottenham, but this time it came out at the worst possible time.

&nbsp, ‘Something was missing ‘

Arteta praised his players for pushing hard after Villa’s equaliser, but Mikel Merino’s late winner was disallowed for handball by Havertz.

” They were exceptional. Dead players performed this for 97 minutes while others were present. They don’t look for justifications or to the bench to offer what, according to Arteta.

Since I’ve been here, we haven’t lost a game against Villa. They’re a good side. In attack and defending, the level we’re playing is so high.

“But something was missing. We must find the line because it is so slanted. After everything we did, we have to concede the two goals we did today.

This season, Arsenal have lost 12 points in the Premier League, the most in a single campaign since 2019-20.

But Arteta didn’t complain about the disallowed goal, saying: “It looks like handball in one of the cameras.

” It’s difficult because we have so much emotion, the celebration and it’s taken away from you. Not easy. “

As they prepare to qualify for the Champions League for the second consecutive year, Villa’s escape act leaves them in seventh place, just two points clear of the leaders.

Unai Emery, their manager, was once more envious of the Gunners, who fired him in 2019 after only two seasons in charge.

Villa could enjoy denting Manchester City’s most recent title bid with his two victories against Arsenal last year, which he had a key part in stopping his former club from catching them.

” Brilliant how the players reacted after the two goals, it was fantastic. In our mentality, today we never gave up and we tried to score, “Emery said.

Arsenal “were creating some chances, but we still managed to score another goal.”

“Arsenal are very strong at home. We want to be at this level, but because of how strong they are, we still have work to do. The only way to get something here is to finish what we did.

Source: Channels TV