Arteta also hailed La Liga outfit, Villarreal for being “super-efficient” during the encounter.
By Kehinde Okeowo
Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, has attributed his side’s 3-2 loss to La Liga club, Villarreal to naïvity.
The 43-year-old Spanish tactician made this known after the encounter, saying the defeat was “painful.”
The Gunners lost in front of their supporters in this year’s Emirates Cup on Wednesday night.
Villarreal opened the scoring in the 17th minute through former Arsenal winger, Nicolas Pepe and doubled their advantage 17 minutes later when Karl Ettab akso found the net.
The hosts pulled one back after Christian Norgaard headed in Gabriel Martinelli’s corner-kick.
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Arnaut Danjuma then raced through to restore the Yellow Submarines’ lead to two goals in the 68th minute.
Arsenal captain, Martin Odegaard later converted a penalty after Max Dowman was brought down to reduce the deficit.
Speaking after the game, Arteta hailed the Spanish side, saying they were “super-efficient”.
He added that his players must learn how to defend open spaces if they don’t want to get punished.
He said, “Today, I think the result is painful.
“I think they’ve been super-efficient but we’ve been naïve, especially the way we have defended open spaces and that’s something that, especially the way we play, we have to absolutely nail.
“Today we haven’t been good at all in that department and that has cost us the game, for sure.”
