ARSENAL manager Mikel Arteta was left disappointed after his side failed to beat Brentford in yesterday’s Premier League clash at the Emirates Stadium.
The league leaders scored first through Leandro Trossard but Ivan Toney equalised as the points were shared.
It was the second game in a row in which Arsenal dropped points, after their 1-0 defeat at Everton last week, and Arteta was understandably not pleased by the result, especially as he felt Brentford’s equaliser should not have been allowed.
“Yes, I just looked it back and it is offside yeah,” he said of Brentford’s goal during his post-match press conference.
“It is frustrating but probably they will give an explanation later in the week but today we haven’t got any, looking at the images, you have to apply certain principles in defending and you do that by sticking to the rules and suddenly you apply different rules you have to change your principles.
“Tell us before because then you don’t hide the line that high because you have an advantage you get blocked.
“The action when you get blocked when you are offside, you cannot block when you are offside.
“But then maybe I’m hoping it’s the camera, the visual, it looks like the actual action,I don’t know, it’s too late, the goal was allowed. We dropped two points.”
Arteta however praised the performance of his team despite the dropped points, also commending Brentford for their resilience.
“I think it was a really strong performance, we had moments, it’s a very tricky team to play against,” the Spaniard noted.
“They have shown that, so credit to them as well because the results they got against the top teams is just not a coincidence, but I think we did a lot in the game.
“We insisted a lot, we did a more difficult thing to score the goal. So early to what happen, happened and the way it happened, it is frustrating but this is the Premier League.”
It is the first time this season that Arsenal have gone two consecutive games without a win, and Arteta admitted that his side needed to step up their performances.
He said: “Yes, you want to win as quick as possible, and we wanted to win today. You see how difficult it is for every single team to win consecutive matches and that’s when you look at the table and look at how many points they have, it’s for a reason.
“So, you need to be excellent in everything you do in the matches, and you need certain decisions to go in your favour as well. There are a lot of things.”
When asked whether Wednesday’s match against second-placed Manchester City has even more importance now, Arteta replied: “Every match is [important]. That’s been the case for the last two months, and today it was a massive game for us.
“It was a big game, and we are disappointed because we wanted all three points.
“There were a lot of things we did really well today and there are things that we have to improve on and do better, but it will be a completely different game against City.”
Arsenal are six points ahead of champions Manchester City, and the two meet at the Emirates on Wednesday in a top-of-the-table clash.
