Arsenal must cut out mistakes – Arteta

Arsenal failed to win yet again against top opposition away from home in a game that will be defined by many along those lines. However, whilst that holds true a deeper look at the game would reveal a growing belief in the approach by the clubs Head Coach, Mikel Arteta. Arsenal dominated Spurs for large portions of the game especially in the second half of the game and we denied a lead when Aubameyang hit the bar after a passing move.  However, familiar errors cost the Gunners again as individual errors from Sead Kolasinac and the team’s collective inability to defend from corners let the club down.

Sead Kolasinac currently playing at the leftmost defender in the back three has a poor passing ability and got into the wrong body shape before attempting to find David Luiz few minutes after Arsenal had taken the lead. The onrushing Son took advantage of the situation and with his pace, buried the ball behind Emi Martinez. The Arsenal goalie who despite conceding two can be adjudged to be the man of the match with a series of excellent saves.

Speaking after the game, Arteta highlighted the issues with mistakes that cost the club points

“Yes. If we minimise the mistakes that we do and we keep playing like that, we’re going to win many, many, many football games. Because we’re going to make it really difficult for the opponent. I’m sure of that.

 

“There’s been various things since I’ve joined that cost us games.

 

I cannot just single out one of them but a few of the ones you have mentioned obviously are involved.

Some come from errors, some is game management, some come from a set-piece, some from individual errors but look at the margin that we have

 

Sometimes errors are led by fatigue. We have made some errors and there have been some moments where it wasn’t about that, it was about paying attention at a short corner or not picking up your man from a corner, or just making an individual error or because the opponent does well in this league.

Acknowledgement of these errors is the first step in resolution and it is expected that Arteta and his team would be working to address these concerns either through training or via the transfer market. A possible solution could be the introduction of Rob Holding to the defence and when quizzed about this the Arsenal manager stated;

“Obviously when you concede two goals like today …[people ask] why are we not playing someone else?

“Rob has done really well when we’ve demanded him to play and he will be ready to play when we demand him to do so I’m sure.

Arsenal are currently without Pablo Mari would have been first choice left-sided center back and Sead Kolasinac is currently playing in that role.

We look forward to the resolution of these issues and wish the Gunners the best in the next game against Liverpool.

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