Arsenal succumbed to a humbling defeat at the hands of Aston Villa that have all but ended their Europa League hopes in the Premier League following a spectacular run that saw brilliant wins over Liverpool and Manchester City.<\/p>\n
Gunners boss Arteta has pinpointed what went wrong for the club\u00a0in their defeat to Aston Villa. With their well-deserved win, Dean Smith’s side took themselves out of the relegation zone for the first time since February with three points.<\/p>\n
It saw them leapfrog Watford into 17th<\/sup> place, who were earlier devastatingly crushed 4-0 by Manchester City, to set up a dramatic finale in the Premier League.<\/p>\n Villa\u2019s victory came about from a set-piece after Tyrone Mings flicked on a corner to allow Trezeguet to unleash an unstoppable, blistering strike into the bottom corner, making this the Egypt international’s third goal in three games, thereby giving Villa a fighting chance of staying up.<\/p>\n However, for Arsenal, it was one-steps-forward-two-step-back after brilliant wins over Liverpool and Manchester City. On both occasions, the Gunners clearly deserved their hard-won victories.<\/p>\n Unfortunately on Tuesday night, Mikel Arteta’s men were unable to replicate their earlier formula for success\u00a0 and ended up second-best to Villa.<\/p>\n And the Spaniard has pinpointed exactly what cost Arsenal in their defeat, saying:<\/p>\n “Villa gave absolutely everything and perhaps we lacked a little bit of freshness.<\/p>\n “Congratulations to Villa because they were put under a lot of pressure and they managed to win the game.<\/p>\n “We were in some really good positions but we didn’t manage to deliver the ball.<\/p>\n “Emotionally and physically it’s been a very demanding week but I saw a team who wanted to fight until the end.<\/p>\n “I’m not disappointed about the attitude – I know where we are in certain areas and where we need to improve more. We will get that.”<\/p>\n The defeat now means the highest Arsenal can finish in the Premier League is eighth, this being the first time in 25 years that the Gunners will finish outside the top six.<\/p>\n However while they\u2019re unable to qualify for Europe through their league standing, all hope is not lost yet.<\/p>\n That is if they win the FA Cup against Chelsea, then that will be sufficient enough to secure them a spot in next year’s Europa League.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"