Arsenal dropped points in the Premier League for the ninth time this season, with their 1-1 draw at Brighton & Hove Albion giving leaders Liverpool the chance to go eight points clear of the Gunners.
Mikel Arteta's side led at half-time, through Ethan Nwaneri’s second Premier League goal, but the hosts responded after the break and drew level thanks to Joao Pedro’s penalty, awarded after Arsenal defender William Saliba had clashed heads with the Brazilian forward.
It was the Gunners' seventh draw of the season and they have also had two defeats, leaving them with 40 points out of a possible 60.
Arsenal's last six league results
They are five points behind Liverpool, who have two matches in hand.
And Nottingham Forest can go level on points with Arsenal if they win at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Liverpool
LIV
|
19 | +28 | 46 |
| 2 |
Arsenal
ARS
|
20 | +21 | 40 |
| 3 |
Nott'm Forest
NFO
|
19 | +7 | 37 |
| 4 |
Chelsea
CHE
|
20 | +15 | 36 |
| 5 |
Newcastle
NEW
|
20 | +12 | 35 |
Although Arsenal are on a 10-match unbeaten run, this was their third draw in six matches. They struggled to respond to the equaliser, with set-pieces their main hope of a winner in the absence of the injured Bukayo Saka.
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp says more performances like this would effectively end Arsenal’s hopes of winning a first Premier League title for 21 years.
"I said before the game there were still going to be twists and turns, but if Arsenal keep performing like this, there won't be," Redknapp said.
"They were poor tonight. [In the] second half they had one shot on target. Draws are costing them. That was a really poor night for them. A lack of quality, a lack of guile.
"Arteta took off Nwaneri at half-time. I know he had been booked but he had scored, he was the outlet. I just felt, unless it was a set-piece, Arsenal weren't good enough in the second half. Credit to Brighton."
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Arsenal manager Arteta echoed Redknapp's sentiment about the second half, although he explained that Nwaneri came off with a muscular injury.
"I’m disappointed because we wanted to win the game," he told Sky Sports. "We started the game with good actions and a good goal. We knew it was going to be a challenging game.
"We gave too many balls away in the second half and we’re very disappointed with the penalty [decision].
"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."
When asked about the title race, Arteta said: "We wanted to win and we weren’t able to do that. But we’ll try to improve and prepare for our next game."
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, the Arsenal boss added: "When you are playing every three days, or less than that, you cannot, with the amount of injuries and situations, maintain the level of performance and competitiveness.
"Today we lacked it in the second half. But today was not about fatigue. It was about the simple things that we have to do in possession, to give chances and dominate the game in the right areas."
Arsenal defender Riccardo Calafiori also felt his side underperformed but felt it was too early to see the draw as a blow in the title race.
"I think we felt we could have done a bit better to manage the game and [manage] the goal we scored in the first half," he told Sky Sports. "We should have scored another one.
"I don’t know why we made so many stupid mistakes. Maybe we were too low and gave the opponents too many balls.
"It’s not a big loss. We have to keep going now and win the next game. It’s not the moment to think too much about the title. We need to focus on ourselves.
"The good thing is that we play again in three days [against Newcastle United in the EFL Cup]."
