Mikel Arteta admitted that his injuries-destroyed Arsenal attack was missing a spark, but he remained challenging about the title of the Gunners, despite their 0-0 draw with Nottingham Forest.
With Kai Havertz and Gabriel excluded Jesus excluded the rest of the season, and with Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka also put offside, Arteta sent an improvised front three on Wednesday.
Mikel Merino led the line, with Ethan Nwaneri and Leandro Trossard on both sides, but the Gunners were unable to invade one of the strictest defenses of the division.
Arsenal did not score in back-to-back Premier League matches for the first time since May 2023.
The Gunners only registered one shot on Doel for the third time this season in the Premier League, after they had also done this against Bournemouth in October and Newcastle United in November.
For context, Arsenal achieved a maximum of one shot on goal in three games in total in the 2021-22 campaigns, 2022-23 and 2023-24 (once in every season).
Arsenal is now 13 points behind leaders Liverpool, who defeated Newcastle United 2-0 in Anfield.
Arteta said he would continue to fight for the title, but the Reds are now winning the 2024-25 Premier League crown in 98.7% of the OPTA Supercomputer simulations, up to 1.3% of Arsenal.
“It's the same as a week ago, two weeks, three months ago,” said Arteta in the hope of Arsenal. “All we can do is win our competitions and see how many points we get.
“We dropped two points and it is painful. It doesn't feel right because we are here to win. We showed indisputable character in how much we wanted and tried.
“We dominated. We tried it in many different ways. We stood on it, but the spark was missing, the latter only to unlock a well -organized team. We have to generate more photos on goal.”
Despite the fact that he did not score for a second consecutive game, Arteta said that the performance against Forest was better than that to West Ham, of which he said he made him 'angry'.
“Very different standard [to the West Ham defeat]”Said Arteta.” We defended with energy, goal, fighting, willingness to make things happen.
“It wasn't because we missed that. We tried it until the end, but couldn't do it.”
Arsenal takes on Manchester United in their next competition outing.
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