‘We lacked freshness and an end product'

Mikel Arteta admitted that we lacked “freshness” in our stalemate against Crystal Palace on Thursday night.

We struggled to fashion many clear-cut chances against a stubborn Eagles side, and our manager was left frustrated with the result that ended our four-match winning streak.

“After a great run we wanted to come here today and win the match, but I think we lacked some freshness,” Arteta told Arsenal.com. 

“We lacked some quality and end product in the final third to win the game. We took a point, another clean sheet which is really positive, but disappointing not to get the three points.

“I think the spirit - and we did have some difficulties in the game where we started to give  some difficult balls away without any pressure - and the attitude the team showed in tracking back, I think the boys were terrific there but we lacked that freshness today and that spark in the final third/

“We will assess and review what we have done in the last two games that we have to do better. Defensively, we were really solid and we are not giving things away easily. We're making it really hard for the opponent. In the final third, we've progressed a lot but today there are things that we have to do better.”