Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has seen this before, and he didn’t like it the first few times — his Gunners have wasted a chance to make up ground on a table leader via missed chances and self-inflicted wounds.
The Mikel Merino-as-striker magic didn’t last, and Arsenal trailed 1-0 on a Jarrod Bowen goal even before the Gunners went down to 10 men via Myles Lewis-Skelly’s midfield tackle with goalkeeper David Raya adventuring 50 yards out of goal.
Arteta said he didn’t get a good luck at the red card incident and wouldn’t watch it back, saying they would put it behind them.
[ MORE — Arsenal vs West Ham recap, video highlights ]
The Gunners’ attack was, to quote Shakespeare “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” as West Ham played resolute defense in a comfortable manner after acquiring their counter-attacking goal for Graham Potter.
What will Arteta say after Arsenal’s latest 10-man disappointment?
Mikel Arteta reaction — What did Arsenal boss say on Lewis-Skelly red card, punchless attack, disappointing loss
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Arteta summed up his emotions.
“Very disappointed, obviously very angry as well,” Arteta said. “I think we have to congratulate West Ham for the victory and the game that they played but I think a lot on our side we never got right. It didn’t allow us to get enough momentum, enough sequence of play with positive action that could deliver into situations of threat for there and even though all the ball we had, then 20 shots, I never felt that we were at the standards or the levels we needed to have more threat and then don’t allow them to run. We lost a lot of balls and we allowed West Ham to run into very dangerous positions.”
Arteta was asked about being angry.
“We have to be. I hope we are very much because we didn’t hit the levels today and I’m very much responsible, and I am very angry,” Arteta added.
Arteta couldn’t deny that his side were well off the pace.
“Very painful. Congratulations to West Ham for the victory and for our side very disappointing. We tried with 10 men. We put a lot of effort and energy in that but we lacked a lot of quality and repetition of positive actions.”
“We played to their position and we were not at a good level, especially with the ball. Just before halftime in one count and cross from the right. We didn’t defend that well enough and the game became very tricky.”
“I don’t want to put it down to injuries. Our overall play and performance and the level of simple and consistent things we had to do with the ball better. We weren’t at the level and I’m first of all responsible for that.”
Arteta explained the couple of changes he made before Lewis-Skelly’s red card, bringing on Zinchenko for Rice and Lewis-Skelly on for Calafiori.
“We wanted to generate another dynamic. We had a little bit more of a threat but in the moment when Myles gets sent off it gets even tougher,” Arteta said. “Tomorrow is another day and we have to be very disappointed with what happened today and how it happened but there’s a long way and a lot to play for. What happened today can happen to any team.”
“We never got a grip on the game because of how we were on the ball. They were very direct. It was a difficult game. We made some changes. We tried to generate some momentum. We thought we could get that but then there was the red card. We put a lot of energy and emotion in it but without the quality of execution.”
Martin Odegaard reaction — Not good enough in front of goal
“I don’t think we played on our level. I don’t think the performance was good enough. We struggled to break through and lacked efficiency in the final third, the final pass and arriving in the box. We let them run a bit too easy, especially in the second half. It wasn’t good enough.”
“A big loss. The form today wasn’t good enough. Really disappointing.”
Why didn’t it come together? “I don’t know to be fair. We let them run too easy a few times on the counter. We weren’t sharp enough to create things in the box and we lacked a bit in the final-third efficiency.”
Injury problems hurt? “Obviously we are missing players but we have to focus on the players available and we have more than enough.”
“We tried until the end but it wasn’t good enough.”
How do they bounce back? “We have to keep going, still a long way to go and many points to play for. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves and have to learn from this.”
