Mikel Arteta could not hide his disappointment after we were beaten by Aston Villa on Tuesday night.
The result means we cannot secure a top-seven finish but our head coach refused to condemn his players after a week that has seen us beat both Liverpool and Manchester City.
"I am really disappointed with the result," Arteta told Arsenal Digital. "I cannot fault the effort of the players, for sure.
"You could see how they were going every time we lost the ball, how aggressive we were, Villa couldn't put three or four passes together. It was a very different game to the last two.
"We completely dominated, we played in the opponents' half but we missed that spark and the ball in the final third to create more. We knew about Villa's set-pieces, we conceded another goal there and it cost us the points.
"The boys are really disappointed. They wanted to keep building momentum. It's been a really demanding week emotionally and physically for them, and I know how much they wanted to win today again to give us a chance to qualify for Europe from the Premier League. But we're going to try in the final."
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