Mikel Arteta dismissed suggestions that Arsenal were over-relying on set-pieces after this afternoon’s 1-1 draw with Fulham.
William Saliba scored Arsenal’s equalizer from a corner, canceling out Raul Jimenez’s opener, prodding home after Kai Havertz had brought down Declan Rice’s delivery.
It was the fourth game in a row that the Gunners have scored from a corner, and the 23rd time since the start of last season, the most in Europe’s top five leagues.
More worrying was the fact that their open play xG at Craven Cottage was just 0.3.
Not the result we wanted. Not the result your support deserved.
Thanks for being with us all game, Gooners 👏 pic.twitter.com/X5pZkYaP17
– Arsenal (@Arsenal) December 8, 2024
Arteta said: “I think it’s a great thing that we can score from a set piece again. We can generate other things, we had other chances. For a team to play like this you have to analyze every phase. “Obviously against a low block you generate set pieces and you generate crosses because it’s really hard to attack inside.”
Asked if his team were creating enough chances from open play, he added: “It’s never enough if you don’t score three, four or five.
“We want to get better at absolutely everything we do. If they play 11 or 12 straight balls out there, I want to win 11. If it’s 12, then 12. If we win the high press and run the unit wide and they want to play, six times, six times. And when we run the game, we want to run the game 100 percent. That’s football.”
Exhausted Arteta bemoans thin margins
With Liverpool not playing due to the postponement of the Merseyside derby, Arsenal failed to take full advantage, although Bukayo Saka’s late goal was ruled out for marginally offside.
Arteta said: “Happy we didn’t win it because I think we deserved to win from start to finish. We did almost everything we had to do to win it. But such is the quality of the opponent, they score a goal with one chance. And then the margins of the league.
“With millimetres, we could be sitting here with three points after a really strong and dominant performance against a really good team.
“We cannot feel sorry for ourselves. We have to stand up for ourselves. We had a really good performance against a really good side. Normally you don’t see games like this here. Now we have to continue to improve and look at what we can do better so that the opposition have zero chance of winning the game. That’s the goal.”
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