Champions League: Arsenal Midfielder Arteta Disappointed Over Missed Opportunity To Progress To Next Round

Arsenal holding midfielder Mikel Arteta was disappointed with how his teammates blew the opportunity to progress to the next round of the Champions League, wasting a three-goal lead against Anderlecht on matchday 4.

Arteta started off festivities with a spot-kick conversion after Danny Welbeck drew a foul inside the box. Alexis Sanchez doubled it after four minutes, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was able to guide the ball to the bottom-right corner thirteen minutes after halftime.

Mathieu Flamini replaced the Spaniard a minute after the opposition made a breakthrough via an Anthony Vanden Borre strike, and it was a downward slope for the Gunners from then on.

"We cannot afford to make that many mistakes and to concede three goals after we went 3-0 up," said the former Everton man.

"It's just not good enough. I'm very disappointed - we missed a great opportunity to finish the job today. It's not good."

While still clueless of what specifically triggered the sudden decline in performance, he admitted that the Gunners' execution on the defensive end was not up to par.

"I don't know. Even with the first goal, you have a two-goal lead at home and we know what we're playing for," he added.

"It was a massive day for us to finalise the group stages, and we need to analyse the mistakes and what happened in the second half, because it's not at the level required at this club."

"We've thrown everything away today."

"We have another two chances still, but you can't miss your chances in the Champions League, because every team has qualities and you can see what happened today."

"I think when we lost Mikel Arteta we lost out because he was one of the few who defended well. That didn't help," said Arsene Wenger.

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