Mikel Arteta admits Arsenal’s opening day 2-0 defeat to Brentford hasn’t highlighted any new problems but does underline old ones that the club are hopeful of fixing in the transfer market.
Without a host of players due to illness and injury, the Spaniard fielded a young starting line-up at the newly-promoted west London side that came up short against an organised unit that used set-pieces to their advantage.
Sergi Canos and Christian Norgaard did the damage in either half with the Gunners attack huffing and puffing in between.
“We are very disappointed to start the way we did this season,” Arteta told his post-game press conference.
“We had really high hopes, and we didn’t get the result that we wanted or the performance we wanted.”
Asked if tonight’s result might up his urgency in the transfer market, especially with games against Chelsea and Manchester City coming up, he added: “We are very clear of what we wanted to do, what our strengths are and where we can improve.
“I don’t think today’s performance shows anything different to what we’ve already seen.”
Clearly frustrated to drop three points against a beatable opponent, Arteta had this message for the fans.
“First, I want to thank them because of the support that they’ve given to the team, all the travelling fans that were here, and after that apologise for the result.
“We know that we have to improve. We have two big games coming up, and we need a different performance to get a different result.”
