Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has rued his side 1-0 loss to Southampton with a lot to do their fight for top-four spot.

The Gunners suffered a third consecutive loss in the Premier League as their hope of returning to the UEFA Champions League suffered another setback.

Arteta in his post-match conference could not find words to describe their recent loss.

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He said,“Difficult to explain because this is football and it is not basketball.

“With any other sport you win the games very comfortably and you are talking about different things.

“Difficult to explain considering [the performance], to lose that football match.

“At the end of the day it is decided in the boxes, they scored one goal, and for the amount of time that we spent around the box, and the shots that we had and the situations and the clear-cut chances that we had – we didn’t put them in the goal.

“Because they had an exceptional goalkeeper today, and as well we didn’t have enough quality and enough capacity to break them down when we had the numbers and the situations to do so.

Responding on how big of a missed opportunity it feels like, the Spaniard said it was a huge one .

“Huge. Because for somebody that doesn’t know the result and is watching the game, you know what they will tell you…that Arsenal won the game – and we didn’t. It’s very disappointing, and difficult to explain with words.

“But this is sport, it’s what makes it different to any other – because again in basketball you have 25 shots and the winner has one and you win 10 out of 10 times. 

On whether not taking their chances imwas what is separating Arsenal from the very top side, the said:

“It is what we have. The players that we have, they haven’t done it in this league.

“When you have a world class player that has been playing in the league for 10 years, probably you are not sitting here.

“But I am the first one to defend them, to support them.”