Mikel Arteta says Tottenham’s Son Heung-min and James Maddison punished Arsenal

On Sunday, Arsenal entered the match against Tottenham as the clear favorite.

Although the Gunners are the more composed team and have superior players, they lost their edge after the first half of play.

Bukayo Saka erred, allowing James Maddison to turn and find Son Heung-min in the box, who converted beautifully, after Cristian Romero’s own goal gave Arsenal the lead.

After Saka took the Gunners the lead once more in the second half, Jorginho produced a mistake that allowed Maddison to find Son, who calmly finished his opportunity.

In response to a question about this during yesterday’s news conference, Mikel Arteta said there is nothing worse than making a mistake and handing the ball to Maddison and Son.

According to Arsenal.com, he stated: “Mistakes and blunders are a part of football; they are unavoidable and do occur. In order for the opponent to spare you punishment, you occasionally need to be lucky when you succeed. The opposite was true.

“Obviously, it cannot get any worse than that when the ball lands to Maddison and they have Son in front of the ball.”

Arsenal can only blame themselves for their Sunday derby loss.

Yes, Tottenham performed well, but the outcome would have been quite different if the Gunners had seized the opportunities that fell to Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Jesus.

Despite how painful the derby was, Arsenal cannot afford to pout. They play Brentford tonight in the Carabao Cup, and many of their players are out due to injury.

The side Arteta names this evening will be intriguing to see.