'We were too inconsistent with the ball'

Mikel Arteta bemoaned his side's inconsistency with the ball as they lose 2-1 to Everton on Monday night.

We took the lead on the stroke of half time though Martin Odegaard but were pegged back by a Richarlison header and then a late Demarai Gray strike.

 

"I'm very disappointed," Arteta told Arsenal Media. "I think in the first half we were inconsistent with the ball and we had some moments of control, we didn’t concede anything apart from the goal that was disallowed by the set-piece, but we didn’t have enough penetration or threat on the opponents' goal.

 

"One of the few times we did it we scored a goal from Martin and then in the second half we had to grab the game and we tried to do that, but again, in moments we were sloppy.

 

"We created four big, big chances, with Eddie, two with Martin and then one with Auba at the end, and when you don’t put them in the net away from home it’s very complicated to win the game, especially if you concede in the way that we did for example with the first goal.

"We gave too many balls away too easily and encouraged them against the movement that they had in the press. The few times that we did break the press we were open on goal, but we have to do it much more consistently."