Arsenal completed a big comeback when they erased a three-goal deficit to draw 3-3 at West Ham United on Sunday, but Mikel Arteta didn't see much reason to celebrate.
The Gunners dug themselves into a massive hole as they fell 3-0 down inside the first 32 minutes. It looked as though the Hammers would stroll to victory over their London rivals, but Arsenal forced a pair of own goals in the 38th and 61st minutes, respectively, before Alexandre Lacazette nodded home the equalizer eight minutes from fulltime.
Arteta's men looked hungry for a winner, but they ultimately had to settle for a single point that didn't look at all possible just an hour previous.
Still, the Gunners boss wasn't exactly thrilled with his team's display despite the fightback.
"I'm very disappointed because I cannot accept my team to play the way we did for certain periods in the first half, the goals that we conceded," Arteta told Sky Sports immediately after the match.
"Because what I expect is the team to play [to] the level that we showed afterwards. We played incredibly well [in the second half], we should have scored six or seven goals, but we are all the time on the verge because we have two phases — and the first phase is about giving goals to the opponent and not doing what we have to do, and it's not good enough."
Of the goals that West Ham scored, Arteta singled out the second as one that shouldn't have been allowed to happen by his players. After the Hammers had earned a free kick at the top of the Arsenal penalty area, Jesse Lingard proceeded to take the kick quickly and catch the entire Gunners defence sleeping, which allowed Jarrod Bowen to walk in unopposed and slip the ball past Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno.
"[It's] unacceptable because we talked about that all the time, but it happens," Arteta said. "I don't know if it's hangover from Europe, [if they're] tired, you lose your focus, the game is taking over because you are losing. I don't know what it is. It wasn't only one or two players, there were more than switched off on the kick. So we have to correct that dramatically quickly."
Despite the harsh overall assessment of his team's performance, Arteta still felt that Arsenal could've — and perhaps should've — won Sunday's contest.
"I can see everyday the energy and the equation that the players have, and we get it really close to winning," he said. "I think we deserve to win it at the end."