Arsenal: Arteta highlights "huge mistake" in West Ham draw

The Gunners saw their two-goal lead slip away at the London Stadium.

Mikel Arteta has lamented his side’s lack of intensity after scoring two early goals against West Ham.

For the second week in a row, Arsenal dropped points after going 2-0 ahead against their opponents. Early goals from Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard put the Gunners 2-0 ahead after ten minutes.

Arsenal then missed a golden chance to restore their lead in the second half. Only two minutes after Bukayo Saka’s missed penalty, Jarrod Bowen snatched the equaliser for the hosts with a fantastic volley.

“We started extremely well again. Dominated the game, dominated the pitch and scored two beautiful goals. After that we made a huge mistake to stop playing with the same purpose to score the third and fourth one and just thinking we could play around them and maintain the result and just looked too easy. At that moment we gave them hope,” he told reporters.

The draw is a major blow to Arsenal’s title hopes, providing a chance for Manchester City to close the gap to the Citizens to one point.

Arteta added: “There is another moment where you could go 3-1 up after 50 minutes and probably the game is over. Two minutes after that you concede the equaliser. This is part of football. My worry is after 2-0 that we made that huge mistake and didn’t understand what the game required in the moment.”

The Gunners will take on Southampton on Friday before meeting City in a title-deciding clash five days later.