Arteta furious with players for throwing the game away

Mikel Arteta was absolutely livid by Arsenal’s performance in the shock defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion.

After a very frustrating hour into the game, Nicolas Pepe gave Gunners the lead with a sublime strike with his left foot.

Unfortunately, Arsenal’s defence characteristically gave away a goal very easily from a quick Brighton corner. Neal Maupay then won his team the match with a chip over Emiliano Martinez in injury time.

“I am very frustrated,” Arteta told BBC Sport. “It is unacceptable the way we lost the game. We like competing and I know we have a young squad but still, we threw the game away. We had to put it to bed earlier.”

Arteta fielded a very young squad, forced by the injuries and option of players at hand. One of the incidents which drew opinions was Bernd Leno getting injured off of Maupay. The goalkeeper was furious with the striker but Arteta believes it was not Maupay’s fault.

“I think it was very unfortunate,” Arteta said. “I don’t think he wanted to hurt him. It is not looking good. We have to fight and be positive; tomorrow is a different day.

“I think the players that came on today did really well, we did more than enough to win the game comfortably, but we leave with zero points again. I think this was a very different one to the one against Manchester City. When you give cheap goals like we did in this one you will suffer.”

Emiliano Martinez did well to replace Leno but he could not deal with his own teammates’ shortcomings. “We switched off and when you switch off in the Premier League you get punished,” he said.

He added on Leno: “I spoke to him at half-time and he felt he twisted his knee. As a goalkeeper, you do not want him to get injured. It is a big loss to the team. I don’t think he [Maupay] tried to injure him. He went for the ball like any striker would do and this is football. It can happen.

“You train hard and have to wait for your chance. I am more than ready.”