Mikel Arteta said he is “very concerned” by Arsenal’s second-half display after they held on to beat Slavia Prague 2-1 in the Champions League.
Noni Madueke and Viktor Gyökeres put the Gunners two up before half-time, but Slavia dominated after the break and Wiktor Nowak pulled one back in the 90th minute.
“We played at a really high level,” boss Arteta said of the first half at his post-match press conference. “It should have been three, four or five.”
But he added of the second half: “We were extremely far from our standards in everything that we have to do, in every basics, in every concept.”
David Raya kept Arsenal ahead by pushing Oskar Kubiak’s header onto the post, and Arteta said the keeper had to show his quality “much more than what we expected”.
“This is great but very concerned about what happened before that,” he said.
Ezri Konsa went off after 62 minutes, and Arteta said: “He’s played so many games in the last few weeks and he had some issues and we decided to take him off.”
There was better news on Gyökeres, who scored one and set up the other.
“Not only the assist and the goal, but he was really connected to the team and great news because I think he needed that performance,” Arteta said.
The win lifted Arsenal to third in the league phase, and they remain unbeaten in the competition.