Arteta blasts Arsenal’s lack of ‘killer instinct’ as leaders blow 2-0 lead again

MIKEL ARTETA ripped into Arsenal’s lack of killer instinct as they threw away two more vital points in the title race.

Bukayo Saka missed a crucial penalty against struggling West Ham and the League leaders surrendered a two-goal lead for the second time in a week.

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It means second-placed Manchester City are now just four points behind the Gunners with a game in hand and all the momentum on their side.

Arteta moaned: “When the game is there for the killing, you have to do it.

“We needed that ruthless mindset because when you don’t have that in the Premier League at some stage the momentum is going to turn around .

“It’s very disappointing. We started extremely well, we dominated the game and scored two beautiful goals and then we made a huge mistake to stop playing with the same purpose to score again.

“It just looked too easy. We thought we could just play around them and maintain the result and at the moment we gave them hope.

“We  conceded a terrible penalty and after that we got on the roller coaster where all the corners and throw-ins were coming at us and we never got away from that.

“We needed to do many things better than we did today and if you don’t defend the box the way you should you concede goals like we did.

“My worry is that after 2-0 we made a huge mistake and didn’t understand what the game required at that moment.

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“For sure it’s a concern when you’re able to drop your level so quickly when the game is there to be won.

“I have no idea what this means for the title race but for sure we have to dig really deep and find the solution to what has just happened.”

Captain Martin Odegaard admitted: “We did the same thing at Liverpool last week. We started well but then we stopped and allowed them to play to their strengths.

“We started to do a lot of stupid things on the ball and gave them the game they wanted to play. And that’s on us.”

Yet Arteta refused to point the finger at Saka for his 52nd minute penalty miss when Arsenal were leading 2-1.

He said: “If we score that penalty it’s 3-1 and you have to win the match by a bigger margin.

“But I don’t know any player who takes penalties who hasn’t missed. If you’re prepared to take penalties you have to be prepared that the possibility to miss is 100 percent.

“Bukayo has been through this before and he will go through it again. If I had to pick one player to do that, it would be him again.”

The result leaves West Ham four points clear of the relegation zone with a game in hand and manager David Moyes said: “It was a great performance by my players.

“To come back from two goals down against a team playing as well as Arsenal have been, particularly after playing on Thursday night, was incredible.

“We could easily have folded at 2-0 down but the players kept going, we got the penalty and that got us back into the game.

“If Saka scores that penalty and Arsenal go 3-1 up it would have been very difficult for us to come back.

“But then we got the equaliser and by the end we missed a couple of chances to win. But I’m thrilled with the draw because this is a good result.”