Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has highlighted a major problem with his side, following their capitulation at the hands of West Ham United.
The Gunners were cruising in the first 10 minutes, storming into a two-goal lead against West Ham through Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard, before they were pegged back following a penalty. Arsenal had the opportunity to put the game to bed at 3-1 when Bukayo Saka skewed a penalty of his own wide – only for Jarrod Bowen to hit a critical equaliser two minutes later.
In the aftermath, the Arsenal manager stressed that his team had struggled with their mindset after the first 10 minutes of the game – but said that his team didn't "understand" what was needed when they already had a two-goal cushion.
"There was another moment, where you can go 3-1 up after 50 minutes, and the game is probably over… then two minutes later, you concede a goal," Arteta told Arsenal.com. "But this is part of football. My worry is after 2-0, we made that huge mistake and didn’t understand what the game required in that moment.
"We needed that ruthless mindset in that moment to go and kill the team. When a team is there for the killing, you have to kill it. Today we haven’t done it. When you don’t do that in the Premier League, at some stage they’re going to turn around and have some momentum."
This is the first time that a team top of the league has let two-goal leads slip twice in consecutive weeks, following Arsenal collapsing away to Liverpool last week from the same position. When asked to compare the two games, however, Arteta was keen to highlight the differences.
"In terms of what’s happened, it was very different," he said, when asked how the game played out simarly to the one at Anfield. "But you have to accept that. That’s the last thing we want in our brains – to not have the confidence after having the possibility to kill the game and not doing it.
"That’s the next stage. When you are there, you have to do it. You have to play with the same purpose or more and not give them anything."
Arsenal host Southampton on Friday.
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