Mikel Arteta sent a pointed message to the Arsenal board over the lack of depth in his squad after being held by Aston Villa.
The Spaniard, who only made one change as Unai Emery’s four substitutions helped flip the game on its head, wants the club to back him in the transfer market before the end of the month.
When asked if the result cranks up the pressure to make signings, Arteta said: “Not the result, I think when you look at the performances, I don’t know how many teams are playing at this level in the league. When you look at the bench you probably say, look at the bench, we are very, very short.”
Raheem Sterling was the only player brought off the bench, replacing Gabriel Martinelli in the 82nd minute, with no other senior attacking options available. Arteta also cited his lack of quality in reserve when quizzed on Premier League title rivals Liverpool winning late at Brentford.
He continued: “Yes, they managed to do that, they made the subs and the subs made the impact and they managed to change the game. In our side it was the opposite.
“After conceding the two Villa goals very close to each other, I knew the team could go downhill because we were physically drained but suddenly they found another gear to go again.”
Arteta also admitted he is “worried” about William Saliba’s hamstring injury after the Frenchman was sidelined with muscle tightness. He explained: “Tomorrow we will have more and more information, he will have another test and we’ll be clear about it. We are worried for sure, looking at our bench, very worried.”
Meanwhile, Villa striker Ollie Watkins claimed he felt his side got lucky after Kai Havertz’s late winner was ruled out for handball. He said: “Seeing it back there, I think it’s gone in favour of us. If that was against me, I would be disappointed. I’m not sure, but that’s what VAR is there for.”
“I think we got the goal, Luca [Digne] put in an unbelievable ball and Youri Tielemans scored. We got a lot of momentum from that and we had a bit of faith whenever we went forward that they were quite open.”
Arsenal are now six points adrift of Liverpool at the top of the Premier League after Arne Slot’s side beat Brentford 2-0 with two late goals from Darwin Nunez. They will try to bounce back against Wolves next weekend before facing Manchester City and Leicester in the Premier League.
Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle in an unbeatable new deal that saves £192 and includes 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.