No squad depth to compare with Liverpool, says Arteta after Arsenal squander a 2-0 lead against Aston Villa.
No squad depth is the reason why Arsenal will not be able to compete with Liverpool, if Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is to be believed.
Arsenal was held back by goals from Youri Tielemans and Ollie Watkins, but two late goals from Darwin Núñez, a substitute, against Brentford increased Arne Slot’s team’s lead to six points with one game remaining. Raheem Sterling, a Chelsea loanee, was the only senior offensive option available, thus Arteta didn’t make a substitute until the 82nd minute, even though his team was pursuing a late victory.
The manager of Arsenal declined to attribute his team’s failures to the video assistant referee’s decision to deny Mikel Merino’s late goal for handball by Kai Havertz.
After Villa equalised, Arteta acknowledged that it had been annoying to be able to make changes to his “physically drained” team, which had played three games in six days.
“There are moments – obviously they managed to do that. They made the subs and the subs made the impact and they managed to change the game,” he said of Liverpool’s win over Brentford.
“In 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 downhill because we were physically drained. Suddenly, the team find another gear to go again and just put Aston Villa in there, in the box, and go and go again, trying to find the goal that we haven’t been able to score at the end.”
Asked whether it 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 are playing at this level in the league. When you look at the bench you probably say, we are very, very short.”
Arteta disclosed that the France international would face more tests this week after William Saliba missed the match because of a hamstring injury he sustained during Wednesday’s victory against Tottenham in the north London derby. He responded, “Yes for sure, especially with the numbers that we have in the squad and looking at our bench – very worried,” when asked if he was concerned about adding a key element of his defence to the expanding injury list.
Villa is only one point behind Chelsea in fifth place and has gone undefeated in their previous five games. Unai Emery was thrilled with his team’s reaction after falling behind.
“We showed resilience, we showed the mentality,” he said. “Today was a very good test. But we did a really fantastic job against a team that is challenging for the title and the Champions League.”