Arteta Unleashes Fury on Arsenal Squad Following Shocking Wolves Near-Miss
"Passive," "terrible" and frankly "unacceptable" were among the harsh words Mikel Arteta employed to criticize Arsenal's display against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday evening.
The Gunners secured a 2–1 win to extend their lead to five points over Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table, but needed two own goals to edge past the league's bottom side in front of their home supporters.
Arteta was particularly critical of his team's defensive approach during the final moments of a scrappy encounter. Holding a 1–0 advantage courtesy of an extremely lucky Sam Johnstone own goal, Arsenal retreated into a "passive" deep defensive shape that gave Mateus Mane the freedom and room to deliver a cross into the penalty area, which Tolu Arokodare steered beyond David Raya in the 90th minute.
"We experienced a spell of two or three minutes sitting deep, completely passive with terrible defensive habits," Arteta fumed. "That's far below the standard required against a side that hadn't managed a single attempt. The moment they got their first opportunity, they found the net."
Despite Arteta's memory, Wolves had actually created the match's best first-half opportunity when Hwang Hee-chan spearheaded a solo counter-attack before testing Raya with a demanding save. Arsenal, in comparison, failed to register a shot on target during the first 45 minutes of a Premier League fixture for the first time this campaign.
"We feel relieved because we managed to find a goal at the death and secure victory, but we must improve defensively, without question," Arteta complained. "I don't attribute it to 'yes, the resilience [is positive].' We should have cut off the danger earlier. That's our responsibility."
More precisely, Arteta was frustrated with the lack of intensity displayed by his players from this deep defensive position rather than the decision to drop back toward their own goal. "We can defend deep because they commit numerous players forward," he clarified. "There comes a time when you cannot press them. That's acceptable. But the level of engagement in that block must be vastly different from what we showed."
"You must acknowledge Wolves' effort," Arteta conceded. "I understood this wouldn't be a straightforward match, but we complicated matters further with how we allowed their goal. And that's unacceptable."
'We Struggled'—Arteta Acknowledges Attacking Difficulties
Even when Wolves aren't scoring against themselves, Rob Edwards' last-place team have hardly been stingy defensively this season. Nevertheless, Arsenal found it extremely difficult to manufacture any genuine scoring opportunities during Saturday's disappointing contest.
"We had one major opportunity with [Gabriel] Martinelli two yards away, completely unmarked, and failed to convert," Arteta informed TNT Sports after the match. "But we found it challenging once we reached the final third to locate red jerseys in the penalty area. We encountered numerous situations like that. And then we failed to create many clear-cut chances."
Eberechi Eze was remarkably invisible during his 57 minutes of action, failing to attempt or set up a single shot while managing just one brief touch inside Wolves' penalty area. Martin Ødegaard was introduced to replace the summer signing and didn't fare much better.
Viktor Gyökeres competed with considerable effort but no tangible results once again, forcing Arsenal to rely on their frustratingly predictable strategy of repeatedly feeding the ball wide to Bukayo Saka. As Arteta noted, even Saka couldn't find a red shirt in the box. Fortunately for the Gunners, the players in turquoise proved more capable of scoring into their own goal.