Arteta left frustrated after Arsenal 2-2 draw with Sporting CP

Mikel Arteta has expressed his displeasure with the result of Arsenal game against Sporting CP in the Europa league.

Arsenal played out a 2-2 draw against the Portuguese side in the Europa league round of the 16 first leg match.

The Gunners would have to thank Hidemasa Morita’s own goal for rescuing them a draw as they head back to Emirates for the second leg.

Speaking after the game, Arteta demanded more from his players, saying they need to improve in the defense.

“We are conceding too many simple goals,” he told reporters.We spoke about the importance of boxes, especially in a competition where you’re in or out. [On Thursday], we didn’t defend that well enough, and we have to be better at threatening the opponents as well.

“But of course, you have an opponent there. We’ve played some really emotional games recently.

“We made a lot of changes and sometimes that takes time to get that cohesion, and you could feel it in the first 15 minutes that it needed some time to adapt and click.

“If we don’t expose them, though, that’s never going to happen.”

Stressing on the need for a compact defense system due to the “two poor goals”, Arteta also noted that the club is missing some players in the frontline.

He added: “When you concede two poor goals like we did away from home in Europe, it’s very difficult to get a positive result.

“The game had different phases because we gave too many simple balls away in our own half and gave them the capacity to [exploit] transition moments, which they are good at.

“In other moments we had total control of the game and we lost a little bit of threat, especially with the four players we are missing in our frontline.

“There were some positives because we showed a lot of resilience to get back into the game, but we need to defend our box much better and be better on Sunday