Mikel Arteta addressed how his team “lacked a little bit in the final 15-20 metres” as **Arsenal**drew 1-1 with Manchester United to throw away more points as the gap to table topping **Liverpool**grew.
The return of one of the attackers to the team was a welcome sight. But there is not much new to take from the match, and Arteta's annoyances are familiar to those who track his words week to week.
‘We lacked more purpose, more direction’
Arteta appraised the display in his meeting with the media: the first half was an all too familiar sight. Though they controlled more of the ball than the hosts, they fell back into old habits in the final third.
“It's frustrating not to win the game with everything we did, especially in the first half, the first 43-44 minutes, how we dominated every aspect of the game, full control.
“We lacked a little bit in the final 15-20 metres, to have more shots, more purpose, more direction, the last pass, the last action, but the game is clearly for us and in the direction we wanted.”
The opening goal annoyed Arteta further on a day when the Red Devils did not look like protagonists.
“Amorim mentioned it and it was very clear that he didn’t want to play that, but in the manner that we dominated the game, they didn’t have another choice, then they scored a goal and capitalised on it.”
The manager saw Leandro Trossard throw away a knockdown in his half of the field before bringing down Alejandro Garnacho on the edge of his penalty area to give away the critical set-piece.
“One long ball and we didn't manage it well, we give it away, created a foul in a very dangerous area where you have to rely on them not to take advantage of individual quality and it’s a really bad bet.”
There were doubts about the placement of the ball for the free kick. But Bruno Fernandes fired the ball into the net and Arteta accredited any invention from the captain to make the most of the moment.
“If Bruno has done that, football is for street smart players and he’s done that and capitalised on it, he’s more clever than us and the referee. I don’t know but he’s done it, it was a goal; they took advantage of that. Football is for clever people.”
‘It’s the responsibility of all of us’
Questions continue to abound about the attack and a fresh face hopes to have an impact in the final third for the final weeks of the campaign. **Gabriel Martinelli**made his first appearance since bowing out of the first half in the second leg of the Carabao Cup loss to Newcastle United at the start of last month. Arteta assured that he can, and has to, do better with the tools that are available at the moment.
“We have to rely on what we can do better with the players that we already have, and we have to be consistent because we did so well four days ago. It’s about doing it again what we did last week. I’m positive that with the ones we have, we can do better in terms of what we produce in the final third.”
There have been some signs of positivity for the team on the injury front. **Ben White**has been in matchday squads since the return to Dubai, and with more for Martinelli on the horizon, the media mentioned the idea of Bukayo Saka seeing the pitch for the first time in 2025. Arteta was cautious.
“With Gabi it was a bit different the kind of injury he had, and I think we talked about it last week that he was much closer than Bukayo. After the international break, let’s see where he is: his progress is really good, he’s really willing, as you can imagine, so we are positive in a few weeks, he’ll be back.”
Goalscoring is not just a matter of putting the ball in the net. The Gunners found their firepower with the handbrake off in midweek, but chance creation continues to be in a state of flux too for the side.
“That [chance creation] is the responsibility of all of us and we don’t want to put that into the minds. I agree with you, that’s fully the initiative that everybody has to take, especially when we defend and attack against so much density. We’ve done it in the past, we’ve done it recently, but we have to do it consistently.
“Another big part of those set-pieces and the amount of situations we generated, so that’s another tool that a few weeks and months ago, we were exceptional at and opened lots of games, and we lost a lot of players up front so we need to require all those things as well because they are really helpful.”
‘David saved us’
Arteta's men had a habit of locking down opponents with superb stability in the second half of last season. A year later, that is not the case, and the team struggled to sustain dominance after the break.
“In the second half, we tried to generate the momentum, we scored a goal, and my feeling was that they were really struggling. They couldn’t get out and I feel like they didn’t have the legs to do that.
“We opened the door for them to maybe win the game. We gave some very unusual balls away and very basic things were done really poorly. Even though we had three big chances, the reality is that David saved us and at the end, we could have lost the game.”
The same story of frustration in the final third also affected their ability to balance risk and reward.
“The efficiency we had in the last 20 metres, it wasn’t good enough, we know that. Those are big parts of a lot of things the game demands when you come to Old Trafford and what we did was superb.
“At the end, you have to capitalise when the team is dominant and much better than the opposition and today, we didn’t. Then you have to overturn a result, which we know is very difficult to do here.
“You have to expose yourself a little bit more because you have to take more risks and then the game could have gone their way in the last few minutes.”
**Arsenal**appear not to be learning lessons, and it has cost them their chance of the league trophy.
After a scintillating showing in Eindhoven, the mood has mellowed around the team. Though they have a game in hand, Arteta's men are already 15 points adrift of the league leaders. In most circles, genuine title talk was dead in the water well before this battle, but the press probed the manager again.
“I don’t want to say that but today the frustration is that we haven’t won our game – we know the urgency and it’s about winning every single match if you want to have any chance of doing that.”