Mikel Arteta urges Arsenal to be ruthless after they crash to a second successive Premier League

Feb 6 (AFP/APP): Mikel Arteta urged Arsenal to be more ruthless after they crashed to a second successive Premier League defeat as Ollie Watkins’ early goal fired Aston Villa to a 1-0 win on Saturday.

Arteta’s side fell behind after just 74 seconds at Villa Park and were unable to muster a convincing response. Arsenal lost at Wolves on Tuesday and have gone three league games without a victory. The Gunners are languishing in 10th place, nine points adrift of the top four as their faint hopes of Champions League qualification look less realistic by the day.

“Really strong performance. We completely dominated the game, we dominated every department, and we should have won,” Arteta said. “But in the Premier League when you give a goal to the opponent – and we gave them another three opportunities to be fair, just giving them to them – and then you are not ruthless in the opponent’s box, you don’t win games.

“That is something we have to do better, and it cost us two games in the last few days because the reality is we should have won both games. It’s a big blow.” When Arsenal faced Villa in November, they suffered a lacklustre 3-0 defeat that sent them sliding towards the relegation zone.