‘Rage, anger and frustration’ – Arteta criticises ‘very poor’ Arsenal defending in defeat to Bournemouth | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta says his Arsenal side defended their own penalty area “very poorly” in the 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth.

The Cherries came from behind after Declan Rice’s opener to secure their first ever win at the Emirates, thanks to goals from Dean Huijsen and Evanilson.

Both goals came from set-piece deliveries and Arteta says he was hugely disappointed with his side’s defending.

“We scored the goal and after that we had four or five very open situations to score the second one, we didn’t kill it and then after that if you defend the box really poorly, in the way we’ve done it in the two set-pieces we have done, they’re going to punish you,” he said.

“A team like Bournemouth are going to punish you. After that, the game becomes rushed, very chaotic, that’s what they want – big spaces. They had more legs than us especially with certain players that were struggling in the final minutes and we weren’t able to get the result that we wanted so I’m very disappointed.

“If you defend the way we did, from very few set-pieces but very poorly you’re going to get punished.”

Evanilson’s winner was awarded after a lengthy VAR check for a possible handball and Arteta was left frustrated that the goal was allowed to stand, however.

“It looks very different to the decision, but they made that decision,” he said.

Though Arteta urged his side to put things right on Wednesday when they travel to PSG for the second leg of their Champions League semi-final, trailing 1-0 from the first leg.

“We certainly wanted to create a really good vibe, a positive result would really help us towards Wednesday so what we have created now is a lot of rage, anger, frustration and a bad feeling in the tummy so let’s make sure we use that on Wednesday to have a massive performance in Paris, win the game and be in the final.”