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Mikel Arteta criticises his team's performance in their Europa League exit to Sporting Lisbon.
Arsenal's manager Mikel Arteta was critical of their performance in their cup exit against Sporting Lisbon, saying his team were not good enough.
Arsenal got knocked out of the Europa League on Thursday night through penalty shootouts after a 1-1 draw on the night and a 3-3 aggregate score.
Arsenal out of the Europa League
The first-leg in Lisbon ended 2-2, and it was all to play for in this game at the Emirates.
Granit Xhaka gave the hosts a lead in the 19th minute of the game, and the hosts were in control but could not manage to extend their lead before a screamer by Pedro Goncalves in the 62nd minute of the match caught Aaron Ramsdale out to pull Sporting level.
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The game went into extra time, and Antonio Adan saved Gabriel Martinelli's penalty, the fourth attempt for Arsenal in the shootout before Nuno Santos scored the winning penalty for Sporting.
What Arteta said
Arsenal's manager thought his team were not at their level for two-thirds of regular time and that his team were careless on the ball and struggled to win duels.
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However, he thought his team had chances to seal the game, especially in extra time, but they were wasteful.
"There were moments in the first 75 minutes where we weren't at our level," Arteta told BT Sport, per the BBC.
"We gave every ball away, and we didn't have the capacity to take the game. There were chances to win it in extra-time. There was a lot of uncertainty with the pens.
"We didn't win enough duals in certain spaces. We didn't put the ball under pressure well enough. We gave the ball away consistently, and it created a really open game we didn't want to play."
Arsenal will now focus on the Premier League, where they are still league leaders and have a five-point lead. They face Crystal Palace over the weekend.
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