By KBC Associate 
Mikel Arteta conceded Arsenal have drawn too many games to seriously challenge Liverpool in the Premier League title race after being held at Goodison Park by Everton.
Arsenal had the chance to cut Liverpool’s lead at to nine points with victory against the Reds’ Merseyside rivals, and they took the lead in the 34th minute through Leandro Trossard.
However, the Gunners were pegged back four minutes into the second half when Iliman Ndiaye converted from the penalty spot four minutes into the second half after the referee ruled Myles Lewis-Skelly had fouled Jack Harrison.
It marked Arsenal’s 11th draw of the season. Only Everton (14) have featured in more stalemates. Liverpool, by contrast, have drawn seven games.
And Arteta acknowledged that their inability to turn more of their draws into wins is a key reason why they are poised to finish second for a third successive season.
“It really is,” Arteta said when asked by TNT Sports if their number of draws is too many.
“You have to win many more games, especially when there is a team that constantly is winning.”
Of the performance, Arteta added: “Well, especially with the result, very unhappy. Very tough place to come. I think that it’s very physical, very direct.
“If you don’t deal with that constantly well, you never get any momentum, so it’s very difficult. We went ahead to finally find more control and try to generate more chances, but the start of the second half was very poor, we immediately gave the ball away.
“We were just insecure what we did, and then the decision of the penalty comes. And it’s for me never a penalty, but we will take it from there.”
With the slip-up giving Liverpool the chance to go 14 points clear with victory over Fulham on Sunday, the title race is all but over, and Arsenal will now focus on their Champions League quarter-final with holders Real Madrid, with the first leg on Tuesday.
The likes of Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard were left on the bench ahead of that game, but Arteta used all five of his substitutes in apparent bid to help his players prepare for the visit of Los Blancos to Emirates Stadium.
“Yeah, that’s all good, but we wanted the three points,” Arteta said of getting 16 players involved.
“You want to get everything in the way you plan it. We did a lot of good things in the game. We managed to give minutes to a lot of players as well and rest some players, but we dropped two points.”