Mikel Arteta has been left hurt and upset at Arsenal second half performance against Anderlecht on Tuesday evening, saying the Gunners have ‘thrown everything away’.
Arsene Wenger’s side went 3-0 up during the game, but a late comeback inspired by once Portsmouth defender Anthony Vanden Borre saw the Belgian side pull the game back to 3-3 and hold out a point.
Arteta, who scored from the penalty spot during the game, said to Sky Sports: “I don’t know [what went wrong] but we can’t afford to make these mistakes and to concede three goals at 3-0 up. It’s just not good enough, we’re very disappointed. We missed a great opportunity to finish the job today and it’s not good.
“We had a three-goal lead at home. We know what we’re playing for and it was a massive day for us today to finalise the group stages. We need to analyse the mistakes and what happened in the second half because it’s not at the level required for this club.
“As well and the main aim [to top the group] when you start the competition, we’ve thrown everything away today. We have another two chances still but you can’t miss chances in the Champions League because every team has great quality and you can see what happened today.”