Mikel Arteta wants Arsenal to become more direct in front of goal after their 1-0 win over Hull City, warning that his players are too often searching for the perfect finish.
Martin Odegaard scored the only goal in the 72nd minute on Saturday, as Arsenal struggled to find a way through Hull’s defence. The result took them six points clear at the top of the Premier League after Manchester City lost to Nottingham Forest.
Arsenal have now won eight games by a single goal across all competitions this season. Arteta believes they must make better use of their chances, particularly against teams that defend deep.
“Sometimes my feeling is that we are trying to score a perfect goal against these low blocks,” he said. “We need to be much more chaotic than that, and that’s it. And open, I think, the scoreline much earlier because obviously that’s going to change the course of the game.”
The manager said Arsenal had several opportunities to put the match beyond Hull but failed to take them.
“We had enough chances to make the scoreline much bigger. We weren’t efficient enough to do that,” he said.
Arteta added that his side needed to keep pressing and create more chances around the penalty area until they found a breakthrough.
The Arsenal manager was also puzzled by the decision to deny his team a first-half penalty after Nobel Mendy pulled Kai Havertz’s shirt inside the box.
The referee was sent to the pitchside monitor but awarded Hull a free-kick after deciding Havertz had been offside. Arteta said he had not watched the incident again and was unsure how the officials had reached their conclusion.
“I was surprised because when they sent the referee to the monitor, Benji [analyst Ben Chadwick] was telling me it’s a clear penalty,” he said.
“So I heard now that they decided not to because of the starting position of Kai that he was offside. I don’t know what the interpretation is. I’m sure they will make that clear to understand it.”
