Consistency and guts, according to Arteta, are the two main reasons for Arsenal’s loss. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you get unlucky

The entire Premier League was waiting for another point loss for Arsenal, who despite it still lead the table by two points over Manchester City. According to Mikel Arteta, his team lacks consistency and courage.

So far, Manchester United has been the only team to rob the Gunners of points. All other teams this season have walked off the pitch defeated. It was only on Sunday that Southampton at least managed to get a draw.

Arsenal, however, enjoyed 59.3% ball possession and made one goal from 12 shots. It was enough for Saints to take 10 shots for one goal, confirming the improving results of the last two games.

“I thought our play in the first and second half was very different, especially in terms of ball possession. We lacked more courage, consistency and dominance when we were in control of the game,” Arteta told the club website after the game.

But consistency is something that is certainly not a problem for the London outfit this season, having won all but two games this season. Looking at the xPTS stats, however, he has been “lucky” in several winning duels. Because according to this statistic, he should have less than 6 points.

So you can say that what was with them during this season has left them now. “We feel like we’ve lost. It was a bit like the Leeds game. We have to be smart, realise what we are doing wrong and improve,” lamented Gabriel Jesus’ missed chances.

Jesus’ comparison with the penultimate league game is very apt as Leeds did have some good chances. Their xG rate was 2.02, while Arsenal’s was 0.82. However, the match was won by the Gunners 1: 0.

However, their goal machine has stuttered a bit lately, as Arteta’s charges have scored only one goal each time in the last 4 games. Even so, thanks to a solid defense, it was enough to get 10 points.

Arsenal will face a rematch with PSV on Thursday and then a duel with the worst team in the Premier League, which last time they beat Liverpool 1:0.

After that, they will face a series of tough games, when besides the top teams, they will also face West Ham and Wolves, who are near the bottom of the table and need to pick up points. These games will be very dangerous as they are still strong teams, even if they are not doing well in terms of results or games.

Source: Arsenal, Understat, Whoscored