Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has admitted to being frustrated as he watched his side slip in the race for a top four finish.
The Gunners were handed a third consecutive defeat in the Premier League with a 1-0 loss to Southampton on Saturday to put their top four hopes in jeopardy.
A first half strike by Jan Bednarek was enough to do damage to an Arsenal side that lacked the quality in the final third to harm their hosts.
Arsenal are now placed sixth on the log with seven games left in the campaign and Arteta admitted being disappointed with the loss.
“I’m very frustrated and disappointed because when you see what happened on the pitch, to concede and lose the football match I think it’s very difficult scenario to imagine,” Arteta said in his post-match press conference.
“We tried to do everything that we could have done in the best possible way, I can not fault the attitude of the players.
“I think it’s the opposite, the way they played as well but at the end of the day you have to put the ball in the net in the opponent’s half and we didn’t for various reasons.”
The Arsenal boss also heaped praises on Southampton goalkeeper, Fraser Forster, stating he was integral to his side’s win on Saturday.
“Their keeper was exceptional,” Arteta added. “The amount of situations that we created, we needed more quality to finish them off.
“[The players] are really down today and they are down because they cannot find the right answer – apart from what we can do better around the box – not to win that match.”
Things don’t get better for Arsenal as they are set to play three of the sides above them before the end of the season.
The Gunners face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday and will still have to face fellow top four rivals Manchester United and Tottenham in the coming weeks.
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