Granit Xhaka celebrates (Picture: Getty Images)
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta felt his Premier League leaders contributed to their own undoing after surrendering a lead at Southampton to drop points for only the second time this season.
Granit Xhaka’s thumping early strike put the Gunners ahead at St Mary’s but they faded and eventually had to settle for a 1-1 draw following Stuart Armstrong’s second-half equaliser.
The draw leaves Arsenal two points above champions Manchester City and with plenty of regrets.
Gabriel Jesus wasted two golden chances to stretch Arsenal’s lead, while he was also denied a first-half penalty after appearing to be hauled down by Duje Caleta-Car.
Arteta refused to make excuses as he blamed his side’s wasteful finishing and sloppy second-half play.
‘Complaints? No, no complaints,’ said the Spaniard. ‘This is football and I think we were really, really good in the first half and controlled totally the game and created big chances that we didn’t put away.
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‘In the Premier League, unfortunately, when you don’t do that when you are on top of the game you can pay the price.
‘In the second half we had some difficulties. We put ourselves in problems with the amount of giveaways that we had, especially in possession, that didn’t allow us to control the game the way we wanted.
‘We stopped doing all the simple things right. The distances sometimes in ball possession were too far, we gave so many balls away in very dangerous areas and without much pressure and that didn’t allow us the continuity we had in the first half.’
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‘We stopped doing all the simple things right.’