Mikel Arteta refused to criticise his players’ attitude after Arsenal’s shock Carabao Cup exit to Fleetwood Town, insisting the defeat had nothing to do with a lack of effort or application.
The Premier League champions were knocked out on penalties by the League Two side after a 1-1 draw, with Arteta instead pointing to their inability to take their chances.
“First of all, congratulations to Fleetwood for going through to the next round and the manner they’ve done it, the atmosphere they have created,” Arteta said.
“It’s a really sad day for us. I cannot fault the attitude of the players at all. I haven’t seen anyone not doing what is required at this level.
“We had so much of the ball, so many chances, so many shots, and if you want the margin to be bigger than going to penalties, you have to capitalise on that and we didn’t.”
Youngster Max Dowman was sent off late on in the tie but Arteta says he will need to watch the incident back before making a proper assessment.
“It’s difficult to see, so I prefer to watch it back properly and then I can assess the situation,” he said.
Asked if the 16-year-old can learn from the situation, Arteta said: “Yeah, we’ll learn from everything.”
The Arsenal boss was adamant the defeat had nothing to do with a lack of commitment from his players, despite the disappointment of exiting the competition against lower-league opposition.
“Attitude-wise, I have zero complaints, otherwise I would be absolutely fuming,” Arteta said.
“I’m sad, I think we are all sad. We have a massive responsibility to carry this badge in the best possible way.
“It was nothing to do with effort or application or determination to go and win it, but we lacked other things to create a much bigger margin that, with what we’ve produced, should have been shown in the scoreline.”