Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is confident that Bukayo Saka will get back to his brilliant best after the youngster missed a crucial penalty against West Ham on Sunday.
For the second-game in succession, the Gunners blew a two-goal lead and the latest setback came in a rather devastating fashion.
It looks like a routine win as Arsenal raced to a two-goal lead at the London stadium within ten minutes and West Ham looking done and dusted.
However, the game took a different turn after Said Benrahma pulled one back from the spot after Gabriel Magalhaes committed a foul in the box.
Shortly after the second half, Arsenal were awarded a penalty and Bukayo Saka stepped up to take it and missed a penalty for the first time this season. That miss proved to be too costly as West Ham leveled the tie minutes later and could have even won the tie late on.
Saka has since faced criticism over his drop in standards over the past two games but Mikel Arteta has backed the youngster to return to his best.
Arteta backs Saka to rise from difficult moment
Asked about Saka’s penalty miss, Arteta said: “The same that the team has to respond because probably if you go three-nil, you’re going to win the match and maybe you win the game for a bigger margin and then we are not discussing about what happened here.”
“So you have to put everything into context. If you are prepared to take responsibility to take penalties. You have to know that in that package the possibility to miss, It’s 100% at some stage you are going to miss a penalty and you have to be able to react after that, or you cannot be a penalty taker. Bukayo has been through that and it will go through that again.”
On blowing two-goal leads in consecutive games, Arteta added: “Well the pattern in terms of the result is different. In terms of what’s happened, it was very different. But you have to accept that. That’s the last thing we want in our brains – to not have the confidence after having the possibility to kill the game and not doing it. That’s the next stage. When you are there, you have to do it. You have to play with the same purpose or more and not give them anything.”
Arsenal will now take on Southampton next on Friday as they aim to return to winning ways, before the all-important clash against Manchester City next Wednesday.
