Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was left to lament the 'millimetre' margins that went against his side as the Gunners were held to a 1-1 draw by London rivals Fulham in the Premier League.
The visitors at Craven Cottage had the chance to move to within four points of table-toppers Liverpool on Sunday, as the Reds' Merseyside derby against Everton was postponed due to Storm Darragh.
While Arsenal customarily dominated possession in the early exchanges in West London, they were undone by one long punt forward from Kenny Tete to Raul Jimenez, who skipped away from Jakub Kiwior and found the far corner with aplomb.
Arsenal ran into a Cottagers brick wall as they tried in vain to find a leveller before the break, but their trusty set-piece routines saved their bacon in the second half, as William Saliba was well-placed to crash home from a corner.
Saliba's goal survived an offside check, but the same could not be said about Bukayo Saka's 88th-minute header, as the Englishman drifted to the back stick to meet Gabriel Martinelli's inswinging delivery.
Arteta: 'Arsenal deserved to win from beginning to end'
© Imago
Replays showed that Martinelli had failed to hold his run, and the goal was correctly disallowed, handing Arsenal another excruciating blow to their hopes of Premier League stardom.
Speaking in his post-game press conference, as quoted by football.london, Arteta expressed his view that the Gunners deserved all three points from start to finish while also bemoaning the fine margins that went against his team.
"Gutted that we didn't win it, because I think we deserved to win from the beginning to the end. We did almost everything that we had to do to win it. But this is the quality of the opposition, with one chance they score a goal," the Spaniard said.
"And then the margins of the league as well. For millimetres we could have been sitting here with three points after a really strong and dominant performance against a really good team."
When it was put to Arteta how tight the offside call was, the 42-year-old replied: "But it was offside no? I imagine that if they give it it's offside. That emotionally was tough because we were so happy and we really dug in to take it and it was taken away."
Will Arsenal have any injured players back against Monaco?
© Imago
Arsenal suffered another defensive injury blow before kickoff, as Oleksandr Zinchenko was unavailable due to an unspecified problem, while neither Riccardo Calafiori nor Gabriel Magalhaes were passed fit for the encounter either.
As a result, Arteta had to put out his ninth different backline of the Premier League season, as Thomas Partey started at right-back, Jurrien Timber at left-back and Jakub Kiwior and Saliba in the central areas.
Asked if either Calafiori, Gabriel or Zinchenko could return against Monaco in the Champions League on Wednesday evening, Arteta cut an optimistic figure, responding: "I hope, but it's more a question for the doctors and physios to understand where we are.
"We are missing a lot of players in the backline. The good thing is that whatever we put there they respond. They respond with a good attitude and performance."
Arsenal are now six points behind Liverpool having played a game more than the Reds and are two points below second-placed Chelsea, who triumphed in a seven-goal spectacular against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday evening.
Ben Knapton
