Mikel Arteta, like so many of us, lamented his side’s lack of a cutting edge in the final third.

“In the first half, we were exceptional with the high press, the direct play, how we recovered the ball. But we lacked the knife in the last 20 metres to test the goalkeeper,” he told Sky Sports. “We created some unbelievable situations but we missed the last shot or the last pass.

“And then one action, a long ball and then you’re relying on individual quality at a free kick and that’s not a good bet for us. They scored from that and then became alive.

“We tried in the second half, scored the goal and when they were really deep and looked tired, we didn’t capitalise. We rushed the game, we gave so many balls away and we could’ve ended up losing it.”