Gabriel Martinelli urges Arsenal to learn from mistakes after draw with Villa

Gabriel Martinelli said it is imperative that Arsenal learn from their mistakes after they suffered another major blow in their Premier League challenge.

The Gunners lost further ground to Liverpool following the surrender of a two-goal lead in a 2-2 draw against Aston Villa which leaves them six points adrift of their rivals, having played a game more.

Martinelli fired the hosts ahead in the opening period at the Emirates with his seventh strike of the season before Kai Havertz doubled their advantage in the second period.

But Villa responded through goals from Youri Tielemans and Ollie Watkins in the space of eight minutes to stun Mikel Arteta’s side.

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The Gunners will return to action in the Champions League against Dinamo Zagreb at the Emirates on Wednesday night before they travel to face Wolves in the Premier League.

“It’s a disappointing day for us,” Martinelli said. “We wanted to come here to win the game.

“We didn’t, but that’s the Premier League, and we will have to rewatch the game and see what we did wrong and improve for the next one.

“But we’re ready to go. We play for Arsenal, we are proud of ourselves, and we want to play every game and win all of them. We are going to go for it.”

William Saliba was absent for the draw on Saturday, with Arteta admitting afterwards that he is “very worried” about the fitness of his star defender.

Saliba is set for further tests on the muscular injury which prevented him from taking part, with Arteta due to provide an update on his condition when he speaks on Tuesday prior to the Gunners’ penultimate Champions League group game.

Following the draw against Villa, Arteta moved to highlight the disparity between his bench, and the strength of Liverpool’s reinforcements, after substitute Darwin Nunez fired two late goals in a 2-0 win for the Reds at Brentford.

Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Ethan Nwaneri, Riccardo Calafiori, Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu are all currently sidelined for Arteta’s team.

“It’s tough because when I see the team putting so much into it, and what we are going through at the moment, especially with the numbers that we have, and that they don’t get rewarded, it really hurts me,” the Spaniard said.

“We need a little break now to get back to shape, to reset a little bit and go again, because the last week or so has been very demanding at every level.”