Mikel Arteta says Arsenal cannot match Liverpool’s squad depth after seeing his side surrender a 2-0 lead to Aston Villa to fall behind in the Premier League title race.
Two late goals from substitute Darwin Núñez against Brentford extended Arne Slot’s side’s lead to six points with a game in hand as Arsenal were pegged back by goals from Youri Tielemans and Ollie Watkins. Despite his side chasing a late winner, Arteta only made a substitution in the 82nd minute when he brought on Chelsea loanee Raheem Sterling, who was the only senior attacking option available.
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The Arsenal manager refused to blame the video assistant referee’s decision to overturn Mikel Merino’s late goal for handball by Kai Havertz for his team’s shortcomings. But Arteta admitted it had been frustrating being able to make changes to his “physically exhausted” side, who played three games in six days, once Villa had equalized.
“There are times – obviously they managed to do it. They made the substitutes and the substitutes made the impact and they managed to change the game,” he said of Liverpool’s victory over Brentford.
“On our side, it was the opposite, even after conceding the two goals very close to each other. The danger was that I knew half the team could go down because we were physically exhausted. Suddenly the team found another gear to go and just put Aston Villa in there, in the box, and do it again, trying to find the goal that we couldn’t get at the end.
Asked if that increased the importance of finding reinforcements for his squad this month, Arteta added: “Not the result, I think when you look at the performances, I don’t know how many teams play at this level in the league When you look at the bench you probably say we are very, very small.
William Saliba missed the match with a hamstring injury picked up in Wednesday’s win over Tottenham in the north London derby and Arteta revealed the France international will undergo further tests this week. Asked if he was concerned about adding a vital member of his defense to the growing injury list, he replied: “Yes, of course, especially with the numbers we have in the team and looking our bench – very worried.”
Villa are now unbeaten in their last five matches and are just one point behind Chelsea in fifth place. Unai Emery was delighted with the way his team responded after going behind.
“We showed resilience, we showed mentality,” he said. “Today was a very good test. But we did a really fantastic job against a team that is fighting for the title and the Champions League.