Mikel Arteta was left disappointed in Arsenal's 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace, as he said that his side dropped their standards.
The Arsenal manager saw his side take the lead twice, only to concede an equaliser each time, the second coming in the 83rd minute as a result of an error from defender William Saliba.
"We dropped our standards today and credit to Crystal Palace," Arteta said. "We struggled to find consistency in the game. We gave the ball away in simple ways and we were late in everything we did.
"We didn't find enough consistency in actions to dominate the game. It's part of football and cost us two points."
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Too many draws for Arsenal
The draw was the 13th of the season for Arsenal, a total that only Everton, with 14, can beat. Liverpool, by contrast, have registered only seven draws. That represents a 12-point difference - the same margin, coincidentally, that now separates the top two.
Nine of Arsenal's draws have come from matches where they led, meaning that they have dropped 18 points in 2024/25 from winning positions. This is a point more than their combined total of dropped points from the previous two seasons.
“We haven't been able to see the games off for many reasons, and the margins have been too small,” Arteta said. “Sometimes that, sometimes credit to the opposition, it's true that we played five times with 10 men.
"There are a lot of factors, but obviously it's something that we've done much better in the past, especially when we've been ahead in games. Today, without really much happening, especially in the second half, we have to be able to see the game off.
"I mean, you have to win a certain amount of games and then a certain amount of points. We have only lost three games, two of them with 10 men, so we have to win many more.”
Gearing up for Champions League
Arsenal now have less than a week until they face Paris Saint-German at home in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final, first leg.
"We have spoke about avoiding our focus being elsewhere," Arteta said. "We have enough time to prepare for PSG but today we didn't deliver enough rights to win the game. It is nice to have long gap, we need it and we need players back to full strength.
"It can be difficult. In many aspects of the game we should have done better today."
"Credit to Palace, they are very well organised, they are a really good side, they made it difficult for us and everyone else, but today we weren’t at our best.
"We have the most important game of the season in six days. We need to get our energy back."
"Hopefully not [looking past this fixture], but we discussed that before Ipswich [Town], and it wasn't there, and today we still had six days to prepare that match, and I don't want to use that.
"Obviously, we have missed a lot of players, a lot of players that haven't trained at all, they weren't able to do it today so we were very short."
Trossard: PSG will be a different performance
Leandro Trossard scored Arsenal's second goal of the match but admitted his team could not get the basics right. However, he is determined to ensure that this doesn't happen again against PSG.
"The quality today wasn’t there compared to our last game. We were nowhere near that and we got punished.
"We need to raise the level with our big game coming up. We want to win every game, in any competition. Especially after the last game, we had a good feeling. We just need to be better.
"It was just the basics sometimes. Not passing on the right foot or taking a touch too much. It was myself as well, I just wasn’t good enough and we need to raise this in the next few days. It will be good to have six days now and prepare for this game with 100% focus. It will be a difference performance."
Carragher: Arteta will be furious
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher felt Arsenal missed a good opportunity to move clear of the teams behind them in the race for the Champions League spots. Just 10 points separate Arteta's side from seventh-placed Aston Villa.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 |
Arsenal
ARS
|
37 | +34 | 71 |
| 3 |
Man City
MCI
|
37 | +26 | 68 |
| 4 |
Newcastle
NEW
|
37 | +22 | 66 |
| 5 |
Chelsea
CHE
|
37 | +20 | 66 |
| 6 |
Aston Villa
AVL
|
37 | +9 | 66 |
| 7 |
Nott'm Forest
NFO
|
37 | +13 | 65 |
"I think Arteta will be furious," Carragher said.
"They will be fine for qualifying for the Champions League but you want to put it to bed as soon as you can. If they’d have won tonight you could write the [AFC] Bournemouth game off in between PSG and rest the whole team. I don’t think he’s in a position to do that now as Liverpool come after that.
"If they lose the next two games then they're just behind you and they still have to play Newcastle. You just don’t want to be looking over your shoulder."
