The Gunners coach feels his side were too tired to get through their opponents defense in Thursday’s Premier League meeting
Mikel Arteta was delighted with Arsenal ‘s spirit despite a 0-0 draw at home against Crystal Palace on Thursday.
Although the north side of London extended their unbeaten run to five games and held their fourth clean sheet in a row, they were unable to break the Palace defense, recording four hits on target over the 90 minutes.
This is the seventh time the Gunners have failed in a Premier League game this season, equating to the number of goalless appearances in the entire 2019-20 campaign. The last time they could not find the net was in more games in one season in 2015-16.
Arteta admits his side failed to create enough chances, but says his players were tired as they faced a visiting backline.
“There was a bit of flavor and quality in the final third round. We had a lot of entries into the third final but there were no big, big chances,” he told Sky Sports after the game.
“I wanted to see a win today and score a few goals but we were fat. We took the ball away, but I can’t blame the spirit. It wasn’t enough.
“Kieran Tierney is a real threat and the way we attack the left is very important but he is injured and we need to find a solution. He will have an MRI scan tomorrow.
“Roy Hodgson has done that throughout his career, which is how they’ve beaten a lot of great teams. Our plan was that we didn’t die.”
He said: “We created a lot of situations against the low block but we didn’t have the final quality. We may not have done enough to win the game.
“We play a lot of games and you can see that fat pays a price, a lot of players are not new.
“We had a fatugue-related time where we kept taking the ball away. We weren’t that hard in the third final to win the game.”
Arsenal will be in action again next Monday when they host Newcastle and then against an away game against Southampton on 26 January.