Mikel Arteta bemoans three circumstances that prevented Arsenal from defeating Tottenham.
In the North London Derby on Sunday, Arsenal allowed two leads to slip as Son Heung-min scored twice to give Tottenham a point after the hosts had missed numerous opportunities to end the game.
As he lamented missed opportunities and costly mistakes, Mikel Arteta acknowledged that Arsenal “lacked composure” in their two-legged draw with Tottenham in the North London Derby.
Son Heung-min scored a hat trick to give Spurs a point at the Emirates Stadium after Arsenal twice had the lead thanks to own goals by Cristian Romero and Bukayo Saka. Gabriel Jesus blazed over after taking down James Maddison in the box, giving the Gunners a clear chance to go up two goals in the first half.
After the break, Saka’s penalty kick appeared to have given the home team the upper hand, but Jorginho’s careless mistake gave the ball to Maddison a minute later.
Maddison sprinted off with the ball and then passed it to Son, who scored twice while Arteta was cursing Arsenal’s wastefulness.
We are definitely disappointed that we didn’t get the three points, Arteta said during the press conference following the game.
especially when you have two leads in the game and the chance to win it.
“In particular, the instances when we let goals in. We had the game under control and had Gabi (Jesus) scored, we could have made it 2-0, but after conceding the goal, you have to recover. We did and we scored the goal, but it’s unfortunate that you gave up the other goal a minute later.
We lacked some composure to complete more passes in the final third because of how emotionally draining that was on the team, according to me. It evolved into a riskier game that is played against them.
Even though we made a strong effort in the last 15 to 20 minutes to win the game, our final pass lacked quality.”.
Additionally, Tottenham’s opening goal might have been prevented.
the brand-new No. Brennan Johnson had a chance to equalize when David Raya flapped at a cross rather than tipping it over. Raya recovered to make the save, but Arsenal was unable to clear the ball as Maddison turned Saka too easily and cut back for Son to score off the post.
Soon after the break, Ben White’s shot from inside the box deflected off Maddison’s boot and onto Romero’s arm, giving Arsenal the lead once more.
Prior to Saka’s penalty kick, referee Robert Jones, who had initially decided against awarding a penalty, had changed his mind after consulting the pitchside monitor.
Romero had previously been the victim of Saka’s shot in the first half, which deflected off his knee and past Guglielmo Vicario to break the tie.
A minute later, Jorginho dallied in possession, and Maddison pounced, allowing the ruthless Son to capitalize and end Arsenal’s second lead.
“In big games, both boxes are so important, and you have to finish those chances,” Arteta conceded. We didn’t, and we also made mistakes like the one we now acknowledge.
“After that, winning becomes challenging, but the boys’ effort, vigor, and attitude were phenomenal.
In today’s game against a really good Spurs team, we lacked the ball control we needed to be more dominant, settle in, and establish the kind of structure we needed.”.
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