Arteta ‘can’t fault the spirit’ of Arsenal players as scoring struggles continue

Mikel Arteta was happy with Arsenal’s spirit despite drawing 0-0 at home against Crystal Palace on Thursday.

It is the seventh time the Gunners have failed to score in a Premier League match this season, equalling their number of goalless performances in all of the 2019-20 campaign. The last time they were unable to find the net in more matches in a single season was in 2015-16.

Arteta admits his side failed to create enough chances, but says his players were tired as they came up against a stubborn visiting back line.

“Some freshness and quality in the final third was missing. We had a lot of entries into the final third but no big, big chances,” he told Sky Sports after the game.

“I wanted to see a win today and to score a few goals but we were fatigued. We gave the ball away, but I cannot fault the spirit. It wasn’t enough.

“Kieran Tierney is a real threat and the way we attack on the left is really important but he is injured and we have to find a solution. He will have an MRI scan tomorrow.

“Roy Hodgson has done that all through his career, that is how they beat a lot of big teams. We had the plan we just didn’t have the execution.”

He added: “We created a lot of situations against the low block but lacked the final quality. We probably didn’t do enough to win the game.

“We are playing a lot of games and you can see fatigue is paying a price, many players aren’t fresh.

“We had a period that was fatugue related where we kept giving the ball away. We lacked the quaity in the final third to win the game.”

Source : goal.com