Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta has expressed his disappointment following their 1-1 draw against Brentford on Saturday.
The Gunners dropped further points in the Premier League title race with a second consecutive draw to slip further behind Liverpool.
Yoane Wissa scored a late equaliser to snatch a point for Brentford at the Emirates Stadium.
Arteta rested Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, and Jurriel Timber for the encounter with an eye on the Champions League second leg clash against Real Madrid.
The Gunners struggled for firepower in the first half as it ended goalless before the game burst into life in the second half.
Thomas Partey gave the hosts the lead in the 61st minute with a powerful effort, finishing off from a Declan Rice’s assist.
Wissa grabbed the equaliser for Brentford in the 74th minute with a close range finish to deny Arsenal the maximum points to the disappointment of Mikel Arteta.
The Arsenal boss was unhappy that they could not earn a win in the encounter despite their dominance.
Arteta said: “We are disappointed with the result. We had full control of the game and conceded a very poor goal. It was not good enough and when you don’t do what you have to do against this team, you concede a goal.”
“The attitude, if you see at the end we have to play with 10 men and we had two big opportunities to score, you cannot say it is about energy. We play every three days and are used to it, so there is not an excuse for energy.
“Well, after the equaliser, especially because we played with 10 men, a lot. But even with 10 men, I think we tried and we had two quite clear situations to finish the action better. I think we have to be critical with ourselves, especially the way we concede the goal.
Again, at Brentford, you know what happens. You have a free kick, the goalie is going to put it there. From there trying to get a throw-in, from there trying to get a corner and then once you clear the ball it’s a second ball game. And in that second ball game, we didn’t defend the space close to the taker well enough, and then it’s a lot to it because they did that really well, and it’s our fault.
“It is one of the things, they commit a lot of players and it is an opportunity in open spaces to hurt them and we did.”
Brentford coach Thomas Frank was delighted with his team’s performance, while signing the praises of Wissa.
He said: “I thought it was a great performance in many ways. It is difficult to play Arsenal and I thought that the team showed great character. One thing to improve on is probably a bit more on the ball and the moments we had to get a bit more out of them. That is the next step.
“Great season Wissa is having, very impressive. Scoring 15 Premier League goals is exceptional. That is down to Wissa and the way we play. With him and Bryan Mbeumo we have two players who have scored 15 in the Premier League this season.”
Arsenal have now failed to win their last two games in the Premier League against Everton, and Brentford.
Liverpool have the opportunity to go 13 points clear of Arsenal if they beat West Ham on Sunday.
