Mikel Arteta says Arsenal need to find a way to win after missing ‘huge’ chance to close gap with Tottenham | Football news

news7f04/16/2022

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Mikel Arteta says Arsenal need to find a way to win after missing 'huge' chance to close gap with Tottenham | Football news

Mikel Arteta thinks Arsenal need to “find a way to win” after suffering a third defeat in a row and missing a “huge” opportunity to close the gap in the top four with rivals Tottenham.

The Gunners have beaten 1-0 by Southampton thanks to a first-half goal from Yan Bednarek despite 23 shots and knowing a win would put them on points with fourth-placed Spurs, they lost to Brighton at noon on Saturday.

Striker Alexandre Lacazette has gone missing after testing positive for Covid although the visitors still created enough opportunities and were denied by a series of excellent saves by goalkeeper Fraser Forster.

Arsenal have dropped to sixth behind Manchester United following a 3-2 win over Norwich with Arteta admitting the team’s top four challenge has lost momentum.

“It certainly has and we need to find a way to win football matches,” he said.

“What we can do is play the best we can to help the team win football matches – today we did it again. The stats will say, ‘Do it. How the hell did we lose that game?’ but the reality is we’ve lost it.”

Arsenal scored just six shots on target out of their 23 attempts but Forster made two particularly impressive saves to deny Bukayo Saka in the first half before edging past Emile Smith Rowe’s effort at the back. in the second half. This is the third time this season that they have scored more than 20 goals but failed to score.

“It’s very difficult to explain because this is football, not basketball. In any other sport, you win the game very comfortably,” Arteta said in a press conference after the game.

“At the end of the day it was decided in the boxes, they scored a goal, we didn’t spend that time around the box, the clear chances we had, we didn’t. didn’t put them on target because they had an excellent goalkeeper today, and because we didn’t have the quality to break them down.

“That’s what we have. The players we have they haven’t done in this tournament. World-class players have been in the league for 10 years. I was the first to defend them, support them. For them, you see how hard they tried. The only way to do that is to insist. What happened today could happen next week or next month.”

Arsenal face Chelsea live Sports sky on Wednesday before facing Manchester United and West Ham in the crucial period.

When asked how Arsenal missed out on a huge opportunity against Tottenham, Arteta said: “Huge. It’s disappointing and hard to explain in words but this is sport, that’s what makes the difference compared to that. with any match.

“I can’t remember a single game Arsenal played this season [where we have] created more and better. But the end result is what we need to get where we are supposed to be. If we can’t do that, we won’t be there. “