Arteta: Arsenal let their standards drop in Chelsea draw

Mikel Arteta said Arsenal must not accept the standards they showed defensively for Chelsea’s equaliser in Sunday’s 1-1 draw.

Pedro Neto slammed in from distance at Stamford Bridge, 10 minutes after Gabriel Martinelli had put the Gunners ahead.

Arsenal squandered a golden chance late on, when Leandro Trossard nudged wide from William Saliba’s cross, leaving Arteta rolling on the touchline in frustration.

But Arteta, who believes Arsenal “dominated” Chelsea despite the Blues registering 17 shots and 1.28 expected goals (xG), singled out the defending for Neto’s equaliser as particularly frustrating.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Arteta said: “The disappointment of not getting three points is bigger [than being satisfied] and it will probably be bigger after watching it back.

“I think we dominated them, we were the better team in many phases and situations in the game and after going ahead, very disappointed in the way we conceded.

“It was so poor. It is not [at] our standards and we don’t accept [it].

“It is a second phase set piece and we were disorganised. We didn’t reorganise quickly enough and you can’t allow the pass that way. You need the quality of Neto to do it but our standards were not good enough.”

Enzo Maresca and Mikel Arteta share their verdicts after Chelsea and Arsenal’s 1-1 draw pic.twitter.com/rdeBVKXruv

— Premier League (@premierleague) November 10, 2024

Arsenal have gone four consecutive Premier League games without a win for the first time since April 2023 (D2 L2); the Gunners had picked up all three points in 21 of their previous 25 league matches before this (D3 L1).

This was the fourth time that Arsenal have faced 15+ shots in a Premier League game this season, already twice as many times as they did so across the whole of the 2023-24 campaign (twice).

Arteta was at least buoyed by the return to fitness of Martin Odegaard, who assisted Martinelli on his first appearance since September. Declan Rice, who missed Wednesday’s loss to Inter in the Champions League, also played despite injury concerns.

“[He] has been out for six weeks and barely trained with the team,” Arteta said of Odegaard, who played the entire match.

“To be able to play at this level in the Premier League tells you how much he looks after himself and the leadership and character he has. Everything flows better with players like this. We clicked much better. You could see everything was flowing but again it is about winning.

“What we have found is that every day we have had to change something big, because we’ve had problem after problem.

“Normally the team goes down but this team has unbelievable energy and spirit to play.”

The draw left Arsenal in fourth, nine points back from Premier League leaders Liverpool heading into the final international break of 2024.