Mikel Arteta was unimpressed by what he felt was a harsh penalty call against his Arsenal in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Brighton as he refused to discuss his team’s chances of winning the Premier League.
The Gunners took a 16th-minute lead at the Amex Stadium lead through Ethan Nwaneri’s second league goal.
But Brighton equalised midway through the second half after a penalty was awarded following William Saliba’s aerial challenge on Joao Pedro, who converted the spot-kick.
The draw leaves Arsenal five points behind Liverpool having played two games more, though Arteta was more focused on what he felt was an unfair decision against his side.
“We’re very disappointed with the penalty,” he told Sky Sports.
“I’ve never seen that in my life – and Saliba touches the ball. [It wasn’t one] for me, no.”
The Spaniard conceded that despite the decision, his side did not offer enough of an attacking threat throughout the match.
He said: “We’re playing every three days. I understand how much we want to [win], but in terms of the quality and the consistency and doing the simple things right against a competitive team, we didn’t do enough today.”
Liverpool now have the opportunity to extend their advantage at the top to eight points with victory over Manchester United on Sunday.
“We wanted to win and we weren’t able to do that,” said Arteta, whose team face Newcastle United in the EFL Cup, Man United in the FA Cup and Tottenham in the league in their next three outings.
“We’re very disappointed with the [penalty] decision. Other than that, we’ll try to improve and prepare for our next game.”
Not the result your incredible support deserved.
Stick with us and we’ll see you again on Tuesday, Gooners pic.twitter.com/XhjZ2RBCjQ
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) January 4, 2025
Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler believes his side are still yet to play to their full potential this season as their winless run stretched to eight league games.
He told Sky Sports: “I feel like I have to repeat myself all the time, which is a disappointing feeling. In the first half we weren’t as intense as we wanted to be.
“The game we want to play is intense, [we want to] press high. If you want to attack the box, you need to invest in deep runs. We’re not where we should be, but it’s a process.”
However, Hurzeler still praised his side for a marked improvement in the second half.
“After the goal it was much better. The big word for us is consistency,” he added.
“When we look at Arsenal’s chances, they had one [big opportunity] during the game.”
