We paid the price — Arteta reflects on Arsenal's sad night against Wolves

Mikel Arteta's men were in control of the contest, seemingly cruising to a comfortable win, before an inexplicable collapse that could see their lead at the top cut to just two points, should Manchester City beat Newcastle this weekend.

The evening began smoothly for the visitors. Bukayo Saka continued his scintillating form with an early strike, and when January signing Piero Hincapie doubled the lead shortly after the restart,

However, the atmosphere shifted as the hosts clawed their way back through Hugo Bueno, before Tom Edozie capitalised on a lapse in concentration to level the scoring in the dying minutes.

A visibly frustrated Arteta did not mince words when speaking to Sky Sports at full-time. “Very tough to accept it," Arteta admitted.

"In the second half we did not perform in the way we should and the way we require to win a Premier League match."

Refusing to single out individual errors while the adrenaline was still high, he noted, “It is better not to judge it, we are all too emotional about it. You have to take the hit because we deserve it. It is very easy with emotion to say things that can damage the team."

The Spaniard concluded with a stern warning for the run-in: “You have to go through tough periods.

"Today at the last minute, we paid the price. We have to do basic things much better than we have done.”