Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta felt his Premier League leaders contributed to their own undoing after surrendering a lead at Southampton to drop points for only the second time this season.
Granit Xhaka's thumping early strike put the in-form Gunners ahead at St Mary’s but they faded and eventually had to settle for a 1-1 draw following Stuart Armstrong’s second-half equaliser.
The draw was the north London club’s first in 32 fixtures in all competitions, dating back to January, leaving them just two points above champions Manchester City and with plenty of regrets.
Gabriel Jesus wasted two golden chances to stretch Arsenal’s lead before the leveller, while he was also denied a first-half penalty after appearing to be hauled down by Duje Caleta-Car.
Arteta refused to make excuses for the frustrating result as he blamed his side’s wasteful finishing and sloppy second-half play.
"Complaints? No, no complaints," said the Spaniard.
"This is football and I think we were really, really good in the first half and controlled totally the game and created big chances that we didn’t put away.
"In the Premier League, unfortunately, when you don’t do that when you are on top of the game you can pay the price.
"In the second half we had some difficulties. We put ourselves in problems with the amount of giveaways that we had, especially in possession, that didn’t allow us to control the game the way we wanted.
"We stopped doing all the simple things right. The distance sometimes in ball possession were too far, we gave so many balls away in very dangerous areas and without much pressure and that didn’t allow us any continuity that we had in the first half.
"And then you are more tired because the game becomes more open and there are more transitions and you are more fatigued.
"We ended the game on top of them and we tried to go for a second goal but we didn’t find a way to do it."
Arsenal, who won nine and lost one of their previous 10 top-flight games, had a handful of penalty shouts, with Caleta-Car’s challenge on Jesus arguably the strongest.
Asked about that incident, Arteta replied: "I don’t know. I don’t want to comment on that. I want to see the images before I do that."
Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl was delighted with the way his players executed the game-plan put before them.
He said: "We didn't give a lot of chances away in the second half and had our chances in some good counter-attacks, and the goal was brilliant, a brilliant counter-attack.
"This is what we tried. We still tried with the ball to be brave in some moments. It didn’t always work – it never always works against such top teams – but we tried it all the time and this was good to see, to be honest."
A return of five points from the last three games has eased the pressure on Hasenhuttl, although he knows how quickly things can change.
He added: "You see we took five points and still are 15th in the the table so you see how tough it is in the Premier League because everybody takes points – and this season it is even tougher, I think."
