The Gunners worked hard against the 20th-placed team in the Premier League and it took a bizarre own goal from Sam Johnstone to break the deadlock in the second half.
Bukayo Saka’s corner hit the post before hitting the back of the goalkeeper’s head and into the goal.
Victory was on the horizon for the home side until Tolu Arokodare headed home in the final minute of regular time after a dangerous cross from substitute Mateus Mane.
Wolves would put the ball in the net once more before the final whistle, but unfortunately for them the ball was back in their own net when Yerson Mosquera accidentally guided Saka’s cross past Johnstone in the 94th minute.
Arteta was a relieved man afterwards, but he refused to put a positive spin on a mediocre performance from his team.
“I don’t attribute it to resilience… we should have stopped the source earlier,” he said.
“You have to give Wolves credit. I knew it wouldn’t be an easy game, but we made it even more difficult by the way we conceded the goal. And that is unacceptable.”
Read – Arteta sets Arsenal points target for Premier League title success
Arteta slams ‘unacceptable’ Arsenal defense against Wolves
The Arsenal boss was critical of both his defense for being too passive in the build-up to the equalizer, and his attack for not stopping the game earlier.
“It is [all about the three points]but we knew it would be a tough match. Especially if we didn’t score early in the game. We had one big chance with (Gabriel) Martinelli two meters away, completely free, and didn’t score.
“But once we got into the danger zone, we had difficulty picking out the red shirts in the penalty area. We had a lot of situations like that. And then we didn’t create many clear chances, in the second half we did that a little better and then scored the goal.”
“But then we had a three-minute period, [sat] in deep, so passive, really bad defensive habits, not acceptable for our level.
“We didn’t concede a single shot at that point. The first time they do that, they score a goal. That’s the Premier League, we have to be aware of that and improve on that because we depended on one individual, chaotic action to win the game and the margin should have been bigger.”
He added: “We created a lot of situations without choosing the right player in the last pass. The number of situations where we had an overload in the penalty area and we hit the first man are not the standards we need to generate more.”
“I wasn’t surprised [by Wolves]. I saw them at Chelsea, what they did against Villa and how unhappy they were not to get a result there. I expected that if we didn’t manage to score early, we would suffer.”
Read more – FA Cup third round confirmed on television
See also – Power Rankings: Man City back, Bayern back on top
Follow The Football Faithful on social media:
Facebook | Instagram | Tweet | YouTube | TikTok
#Arteta #slams #unacceptable #Arsenal #defense #Wolves