Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has backed Bukayo Saka to bounce back from his penalty miss against West Ham.
Saka missed from the spot at the London Stadium on Sunday, firing wide when he had the chance to put the Gunners 3-1 up.
Minutes later, Arsenal were punished when West Ham went up the other end and equalised through Jarrod Bowen.
The game finished 2-2 as the Gunners suffered a setback to their title hopes.
Arsenal are now just four points clear of Manchester City, who also have a game in hand.
The two sides meet at the Etihad a week on Wednesday.
Asked how Saka will react to missing the penalty, Arteta said: “The same way the team has to respond, because if you [make it] 3-1 you have to win the match and maybe you win by a bigger margin and we’re not discussing what we are here.
“So you have to put everything into context. If you are prepared to take responsibility of penalties, you have to be prepared that in that package the possibility to miss is 100 per cent.
“At some point you’re going to miss. That’s it. You have to be able to react to that after.
“If you cannot do that, then you cannot be a penalty taker. Bukayo has been through that and he will go through that again.
“If I had to pick one player to do it, it would be him again. In that moment we missed it and this is football.”
Arsenal had been cruising to victory after scoring two goals in the opening 10 minutes through Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard.
For the second time in a week, though, they let a two-goal lead slip and Said Benrahma and Bowen punished them for not killing the game.
“We need that ruthless mindset in those moments to go and kill a team. When the game is there for the killing you have to do it,” Arteta said. “Today we haven’t done it.
“When you don’t do that in the Premier League at some stage it’s going to turn around with the momentum and then you have to defend, for example, the second goal much better than we did. If not you don’t win the game.
“There is another moment where you could go 3-1 up after 50 minutes and probably the game is over. Two minutes after that you concede the equaliser. This is part of football.
“My worry is after 2-0 that we made that huge mistake and didn’t understand what the game required in the moment.”
