‘The difference’: Mikel Arteta highlights the biggest factor behind Arsenal’s defeat last night

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Arsenal were disappointing as they threw away a lead to lose against RC Lens in the Champions League last night.

It was Arsenal’s first away game in the competition since a 5-1 loss to Bayern Munich in 2017, but despite the long absence, the team could not find a way to win.

Gabriel Jesus opened the scoring before Adrien Thomasson equalised shortly after, and summer transfer target Elye Wahi netted a winner in the second half.

Arsenal were outmatched physically, sloppy at the back and blunt in attack in their first defeat of the season, and Mikel Arteta has now highlighted where it all went wrong.

Arteta bemoans poor finishing

Speaking after the game, Arteta singled out Arsenal’s poor finishing as the reason for defeat, with Lens’ clinical edge handing them the three points.

“The difference was in the boxes, we had four or five big chances and didn’t put them away, and we didn’t defend the boxes well enough,” he stated.

“It’s true that there were moments in the second half we struggled to be more of a threat in the final third, and attack certain spaces, otherwise they defended those numbers really well and that’s something to take for the next game.”

Both Tomasson and Wahi produced excellent finishes to score, whilst Takehiro Tomiyasu, Jesus and Reiss Nelson were unable to convert the few opportunities they had.

Is Arteta highlighting the wrong problem?

Arsenal did not take their chances well yesterday, but a bigger issue is that Arsenal are simply not creating enough chances overall.

The Gunners are currently 12th in the Premier League for big chances created, level with Luton Town, and this mirrors a problem Arteta faced three years ago.

In 2020, Arsenal went on a nightmare winless run, which saw Arteta’s side win just one game in 10, but a lot of these results were marginal 2-1 or 1-0 defeats where Arsenal created very little and were punished.

A similar theme is occurring this season, except there is much more quality in defence than before, meaning that 1-0 losses have become 1-0 victories, especially away from home, but this is an unsustainable way of playing throughout a season, and the side have now been punished by Lens.

Whoever is playing upfront for Arsenal currently plays each game with just one or two good opportunities falling to them, and if they are not taken, the striker receives the blame rather than the rest of the side for failing to provide more service.

Arteta’s words following the defeat indicate that he is more unhappy with Arsenal failing to be decisive in key moments, than his side failing to create big chances, and in the long run, the creative void may prove more harmful.