Arteta urges Arsenal to abandon pursuit of "perfect goal" after narrow win

Arsenal secured a 1-0 win over Hull City on Saturday, with captain Martin Ødegaard scoring the decisive goal in the 72nd minute. The victory moved the Gunners six points clear at the top of the Premier League and matched their best-ever start to a season – nine wins from ten games. However, manager Mikel Arteta said the side needs to improve its attacking approach.

"We need to be more efficient. Sometimes my feeling is that we are trying to score a perfect goal against these low blocks. We need to be much more chaotic than that and open the scoreline earlier," Arteta said.

He added that Arsenal must generate more chances around the penalty area and maintain pressure until they break down defensive blocks. The manager also expressed surprise at a VAR decision that did not award a penalty after a challenge on Kai Havertz, noting that the referee consulted the monitor but ultimately ruled the incident a free-kick because Havertz was offside.

"I was surprised because when they sent the referee to the monitor, Benji was telling me it's a clear penalty. I heard now that they decided not to because of the starting position of Kai that he was offside. I don't know what the interpretation is," Arteta said.

Arsenal have won eight matches this season by a single-goal margin and will look to increase their goal output after the international break.