Mikel Arteta makes 'worrying' admission as Arsenal survive almighty scare vs Leicester

Mikel Arteta has confessed he was left ‘worrying’ as his Arsenal team were nearly held to a draw against Leicester after letting a two-goal lead slip.

Despite a commanding first-half performance with goals from Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard, the Gunners’ grip on the game slipped after the break. Leicester’s James Justin netted twice, and the Gunners were minutes away from dropping two points.

However, a late own goal by Wilfred Ndidi and a fortunate Kai Havertz effort in stoppage time secured a 4-2 victory for Arteta’s men.

The victory catapults Arsenal to level on points with Manchester City, who stumbled against Newcastle earlier in the day at St James’ Park.

Reflecting on the match, Arteta acknowledged his concern at Arsenal’s lapse in concentration but commended his squad’s resilience to reclaim control. Post-match, the Spaniard said: “I am happier with how we dealt with it – emotionally in control.

“It was worrying. In theory, we should have never got to this point – but this is football. This is the beauty of football, in relation to other sports.

“It got very emotional. More than we wanted certainly. After 2-0 the result should have been bigger. This is the Premier League. They scored two goals. But I’m really pleased with the way we responded.”

Arsenal squandered plenty of opportunities to extend their lead throughout, having 36 attempts at goal on total, 16 of which were on target.

Arteta voiced concerns post-match about the amount of missed chances: “It was emotionally difficult to accept given the amount of goals we should have scored.”

However, the Spaniard was still happy with the performance. Whilst talking to Match of the Day, he expressed his delight, saying: “I’m very happy, first of all with the performance. I think we were unbelievable today. We deserved to win with many more goals.

“Starting the second half the way we did, conceding the first goal makes things harder and then with the equaliser the team showed unbelievable character to keep pushing, creating chance after chance. We suffered more than we should have but this is football. Really happy with the team.”

The North London giants are now gearing up for a challenging Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain before turning their attention back to the Premier League for a fixture against Southampton next Saturday.