Arsenal suffer latest selection blow as Mikel Arteta fuming and makes new Liverpool title race claim

Mikel Arteta admitted he was ’angry’ as his Arsenal players after they suffered a significant slip-up in the Premier League title race.

The Gunners had a chance to close the gap on leaders Liverpool to five points. But Arsenal suffered a 1-0 defeat by West Ham United at the Emirates Stadium. Jarrod Bowen scored the only goal of the game for the Hammers.

It means that Liverpool have the chance to open up an 11-point chasm when they face Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium today. And Arteta bemoaned how Arsenal allowed West Ham too many opportunities.

‘Not in our hands’

The Gunners boss said via arsenal.com: “Very disappointed, obviously very angry as well. I think we have to congratulate West Ham for the victory and the game that they played but I think a lot on our side we never got right.

“It didn’t allow us to get enough momentum, enough sequence of play with positive action that could deliver into situations of threat for there and even though all the ball we had, then 20 shots, I never felt that we were at the standards or the levels we needed to have more threat and then don’t allow them to run. We lost a lot of balls and we allowed West Ham to run into very dangerous positions. We have to be. I hope we are very much because we didn’t hit the levels today and I’m very much responsible, and I am very angry.

“It’s not in our hands. For me, I’m really, really annoyed with the things that were in our hands that we didn’t do as well as we possibly could and that’s the performance.”

No excuses

Arsenal are short of attacking players, with recognised strikers Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz both ruled out for the rest of the season with respective ACL and hamstring injuries. Talisman Bukayo Saka and fellow forward Gabriel Martinelli are also injured but Arteta made no excuses.

The Spaniard said: “I refuse that completely because I am talking about the standards of the players and the team that we played today, me included 100%, were nowhere near the levels that we have to hit to have the opportunity to win a Premier League game today. We were very consistent, yes, but football is about what you do today and today, it was nowhere near.”

Arsenal’s loss was compounded when Myles Lewis-Skelley was sent-off when his side were trailing. Lewis-Skelley was given a yellow card for holding back the breaking Mohammed Kudus but VAR intervened and it was upgraded to a red. It means the teenager will have to serve a one-match suspension when Arsenal travel to third-placed Nottingham Forest on Wednesday. Arteta said on the incident: “I haven’t seen it back but honestly, I would focus on what we have to do. I don’t know if the decision was right or wrong, I haven’t seen it to evaluate it. But I think we should have done better today, it wasn’t enough.”