Mikel Arteta admitted he was “very disappointed” after Arsenal blew the chance to go top of the Premier League.
The Gunners would have leapfrogged Liverpool with a win over West Ham, but they slipped to a 2-0 defeat at home.
Arsenal dominated much of the possession and had 30 shots on goal, however they failed to make it count.
Arteta’s side still trail Liverpool by two points and, if results go against them, they could be fourth by the time they travel to Fulham on Sunday.
“We want to be at the top and today we are very, very disappointed,” said Arteta. “We had so much dominance in the game.
“We are in a really good position. Today is a disappointing night. We have to pick ourselves up for a big game against Fulham.
“This is football. When you look at how much we generated in the game, to see the result is very disappointing. But they (West Ham) were better than us in both boxes.
“They had two shots - with the penalty, three. We had 30, I don’t know how many touches in the box, how many situations, how many opportunities to score and we haven’t done it.
“In football you have to do that better if you want to win. Today we haven’t won because of that, because for the rest I think we kept trying and had an incredible attitude again.”
Arsenal had 77 touches in the opposition box against West Ham, the most on record (since 2008-09) in a single Premier League match for a team who did not score, and Arteta was frustrated by their failure to find the back of the net.
“We have to put the ball in the net and win it,” he said. “The two situations we have to defend the box, we didn’t defend it well enough.
“They are a team that is really good in the box with their timing, with the quality they have in their front players arriving.
“That’s what made the difference today. It’s a very disappointing night for us because I think we should have got more from the game.
"But it’s football. Normally when the team generates so much it’s going to win games. That’s the way we’ve done it.
“Against Brighton, we generated so much and against Liverpool as well, but we score goals in different ways.
“We have to make another step in that area to win games more comfortably that’s for sure because today the team deserves to win the game. There’s no question about that.”
