Arsenal supervisor Mikel Arteta urged his crew to enhance their defence after they needed to combat again to earn a 2-2 draw with Sporting Lisbon within the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie on Thursday.
Arsenal went forward within the twenty second minute by William Saliba however Goncalo Inacio equalised within the thirty fourth minute earlier than Paulinho made it 2-1 within the fifty fifth. The guests lastly levelled phrases when Hidemasa Morita netted an personal objective within the 62nd minute.
Arteta was sad with the north London aspect as they conceded two targets for the second successive recreation following their 3-2 Premier League win over Bournemouth final weekend.
“We are conceding too many simple goals and we’ve talked about the importance of boxes, and especially in a competition where you are in or out,” Arteta advised reporters.
“Today we didn’t defend that well enough, and we have to do better up against our opponents.”
Arteta mentioned the crew lacked their standard attacking risk owing to the absence of some key gamers, together with striker Gabriel Jesus who’s but to succeed in full health after struggling a knee harm on the World Cup in early December.
“We had some positives because we showed a lot of resilience to get back in the game, but we need to defend our box much better and we have to be in the return leg to beat them,” Arteta added.
The second leg shall be performed on the Emirates on March 16.
Premier League leaders Arsenal, who’ve a five-point lead over second-placed Manchester City, will journey to Fulham for Sunday’s league recreation.
