After losing to West Ham United the previous evening, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta brought up his team’s draw with Liverpool.
On Thursday, the Gunners’ chances of winning the title were damaged as they lost 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium. Pundits Alan Shearer and Jermain Defoe stated immediately following the match that Arsenal was now, at most, third favorites to win the Premier League. Behind Manchester City and Liverpool.
That may be the case, but Arteta s squad also create enough opportunities to defeat the Hammers in the match. Speaking about it at his press conference after the game. The Spanish coach implied that the circumstances were the same as they were at Anfield on Saturday.
“When the team generates that much normally you are going to win games and that’s the way we have done it,” explained Arteta.
“Because as well against Brighton we generate so much, against Liverpool as well. But we score goals in different ways and we have to make another step in that area to win the game more comfortably for sure, because today the team deserves to win the game, there’s no question about that.”
Arteta regrets lost opportunities
Here, we’re not sure if we agree with Arteta. Last weekend, Arsenal hardly produced anything noteworthy against Liverpool. The only real chance that comes to mind is the one that Gabriel Martinelli missed in the one-on-one match against Alisson Becker.
The Reds goalkeeper had very little else to do that was important. Ibrahima Konate’s outstanding performance in particular mostly prevented the Gunners from scoring.
Therefore, even though they might not have had luck last night, Arteta seems a little dishonest to combine this game with the Liverpool match.
The former Everton midfielder seems to be implying that despite dominating, his team has been losing points all the time. At Anfield, that just wasn’t the situation.
In actuality, Liverpool had the best opportunity of the match. Arsenal would have lost if Trent Alexander-Arnold’s effort in the second half had gone just under the crossbar.
It’s a bit much for Arteta to say that their inability to win was just due to them missing too many opportunities, especially considering that they also managed to get away with a fairly obvious handball in the box.
Either way, how and why Arsenal drop points doesn’t really matter for Liverpool. As long as they keep on dropping them. There’s a title to be won.
