Arsenal can’t blame technology for West Ham loss, says Arteta

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta feels his team can’t blame technology for their 2-0 loss against West Ham United at the Emirates Stadium on Thursday. Tomás Soucek opened the scoring for the visitors in the 13th minute. The on-field referee Michael Oliver gave the goal but the replays suggested that the ball might have gone out as Jarrod Bowen pulled it back to create an assist.

However, there was inconclusive evidence to overturn the on-field decision by the referee. But Arteta admitted they lost because they didn’t take their chances as they took a total of 30 shots.

“I haven’t seen it, [but] they’re saying it’s not conclusive,” said Arteta. “It’s a shame that with the technology that we have, that it’s not that clear so that we can say whether it’s out or in. It’s done. It’s gone. There’s nothing we can do about it now.

“If the technology we have at the moment is not good enough to give us that answer, what we have to do is without that win the game. With the number of situations we generated in the game, that should have been more than enough.”

The Gunners registered 77 touches in West Ham’s boxes and had 75% possession but failed to find the back of the net. Arteta feels his team needs to be more aggressive to get the desired results.

“It is what it is,” added Arteta. “We have to try to generate. If we don’t score with 30 shots, then we have to do 50 or 60 to try to score. That’s the only thing. I can’t imagine a game where we have more touches in the box, more dominance and less situations for the opponent against a really good West Ham side. Today though, it wasn’t enough to win the game.”

With this loss, Arsenal missed a chance to leapfrog Liverpool at the top of the points table. Arsenal will next take on Fulham at the Craven Cottage on Sunday.