Mikel Arteta described the last-gasp setback at Aston Villa as “painful” and “hard to take” but conceded Arsenal did not reach their recent standards after suffering their second league defeat of the season.
Emi Buendia scored with the last kick of the game to hand Villa a 2-1 win and spark wild scenes of celebration around Villa Park.
Defeat means Manchester City can close to within two points of the Gunners if they beat Sunderland this afternoon.
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Trossard goal not enough for Arsenal
Matty Cash put the home side in front but Leandro Trossard came off the bench at half-time to net an equaliser before having to go off again after seemingly suffering a recurrence of a muscular injury.
“In the manner it happened at the end it is really difficult to take,” Arteta told TNT Sports.
“You are always on the edge, especially when you don’t manage the ball well when you regain it, and we didn’t do that very well in the first half. In the second half we started really well. Scored a goal and we were really dominant. But then we had periods again where the same issue appeared and then we didn’t have the dominance and we allowed the open spaces.
“We gave two balls away ourselves to the opponent which could have cost us the game before actually the goal. Last kick of the game we have the chance with the cross from Declan [Rice] for Noni [Madueke] and Viktor [Gyokeres]. We don’t score. Goal kick long, second ball, clear the ball, individual action. The ball comes inside the box and you end up losing it. It is painful.”
Villa go second
Villa moved up to second, for a few hours at least, after securing their seventh successive win in all competitions.
Arteta added: “Credit to them for what they do. They are a really good side. We had our moments to go on and score the second goal. We were very, very close a few times and at the end after 18 games unbeaten, which is a long run, you need to lift up and go again.”
For Arsenal, it was a first league defeat since going down 1-0 at Liverpool in August.
“Certain standards today, particularly individually we didn’t reach that level,” said the former Arsenal midfielder. “The effort was absolutely there. Use that pain to go again. That is football.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: 101greatgoals.com
