Arsenal facing Tottenham at ‘right time’, says Mikel Arteta ahead of crucial north London derby
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It has been a while since Mikel Arteta has experienced a week quite as bruising as the one just gone. In his press conference at Emirates Stadium on Sunday after Manchester United had dumped Arsenal out of the FA Cup, the Spaniard puffed out his cheeks and shook his head.
“Incredible how we didn’t win the game,” said Arteta. “That’s basically to sum up the dominance, the superiority in relation to opposition and everything that we did to try to win the game. “And that’s it. We didn’t get what we deserved, clearly, but there is an element that is about putting the ball in the back of the net.”.
Arteta described the penalty shootout defeat to Manchester United as a freak result and said 999 times out of 1000, Arsenal would have won. The reality is, though, the loss was very similar to Tuesday’s defeat to Newcastle in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final, where Arsenal were also guilty of missing chances.
Across the two losses to Manchester United and Newcastle, the Gunners had 49 shots on goal and an xG over six - but they scored just once. Last week really put Arsenal’s issues in front of goal to the fore, however it has been bubbling away all season.
Arteta’s side have played 31 games in all competitions and in 14 of those they have scored one goal or less. Kai Havertz was the biggest guilty party on Sunday, somehow missing two glorious chances in the second half. But the German was not alone, and Gabriel Jesus being carried off on a stretcher after sustaining a knee injury only makes things worse for Arteta.
