MIKEL ARTETA could not hide his frustration over Arsenal’s ‘lack of attacking quality’ as he dropped a worrying transfer hint following the stalemate with Burnley.
The Gunners dropped two valuable points in the chase for a top four place after they were held at home by the Clarets.
Arsenal dominated throughout at the Emirates and had 20 shots – but just five of those were on target.
That is now five games in 2022 without a win and seven hours since they last scored a goal.
Arteta said afterwards: “We started slow, we looked leggy and didn’t have enough rhythm or intention to attack the way we wanted.
“We started to play better, more rhythm and threat and came out in the second half completely different.
“We tried in every different way but lacked the quality in the final third.
“At the end, when we have a really low block, you need spark and creativity to win football matches and today we didn’t do that.
@font-face{font-family:’The Sun’;src:url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Regular.woff2’) format(‘woff2’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Regular.woff’) format(‘woff’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Regular.ttf’) format(‘truetype’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Regular.svg#’) format(‘svg’);font-style:normal;font-weight:400;font-display:swap;}@font-face{font-family:’The Sun’;src:url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Medium.woff2’) format(‘woff2’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Medium.woff’) format(‘woff’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Medium.ttf’) format(‘truetype’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Medium.svg#’) format(‘svg’);font-style:normal;font-weight:500;font-display:swap;}@font-face{font-family:’The Sun’;src:url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-HeavyNarrow.woff2’) format(‘woff2’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-HeavyNarrow.woff’) format(‘woff’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-HeavyNarrow.ttf’) format(‘truetype’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-HeavyNarrow.svg#’) format(‘svg’);font-style:normal;font-weight:400;font-stretch:semi-condensed;font-display:swap;}@font-face{font-family:’The Sun’;src:url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Bold.woff2’) format(‘woff2’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Bold.woff’) format(‘woff’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Bold.ttf’) format(‘truetype’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Bold.svg#’) format(‘svg’);font-style:normal;font-weight:700;font-stretch:normal;font-display:swap;}@font-face{font-family:’The Sun’;src:url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-HeavyNarrow.woff2’) format(‘woff2’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-HeavyNarrow.woff’) format(‘woff’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-HeavyNarrow.ttf’) format(‘truetype’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-HeavyNarrow.svg#’) format(‘svg’);font-style:normal;font-weight:700;font-stretch:condensed;font-display:swap;}.css-qu9fel{border-top:1px solid #dcdddd;}.css-b9nmbi{margin-bottom:16px;border-top:1px solid #dcdddd;}
Most read in Football
.css-1gojmfd{margin-bottom:16px;}
FREE BETS: GET OVER £2,000 IN NEW CUSTOMER DEALS
“It is what they do, they want to play a slow game, it takes long, it is their game and you have to respect that.”
He continued: “We need to start scoring goals and get back the players, the last four weeks it has been extremely difficult to put training sessions and squads together because of the amount of Covid and injuries.”
The North London club are desperate for attacking reinforcements as they try to get outcasted skipper Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang off the wage bill and with the futures of Eddie Nketiah and Alexandre Lacazette, both out of contract in June, still up in the air.
Fiorentina forward Dusan Vlahovic has allegedly been given a deadline of this week to make up his mind whether he wants to join Arsenal.
But when pressed on Arsenal’s January transfer plans, Arteta added: “In this market things are complicated.”
⚽ Get all the latest Arsenal news, updates and transfer gossip with our live blogs
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk