MIKEL Arteta is calling on Arsenal “to be more ruthless” when they tackle Leeds at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

The Gunners are still reeling from back-to-back defeats in the West Midlands after losing on the road to both Aston Villa and Wolves in recent weeks.

Arteta believes his side should have won both of those games, but a calamitous combination of needless red cards and lax defending – not to mention generosity in the final third – unsurprisingly proved costly.

Admitting that “the top teams don’t make those mistakes”, Arteta must now stop the rot which has left Arsenal languishing 11th in the Premier League table – suffering a staggering 10 defeats from their 23 games along the way.

“Against Aston Villa we completely dominated the game, we dominated in every department and we should have won the game,” insisted the Gunners boss.

“But in the Premier League, when you give a goal to the opponent and you are not ruthless in the opponent’s box, you don’t win games.

“The rest, the way the team played and the energy that they showed, the quality they showed, the number of chances and situations we created, how quickly we regained the ball, how we controlled long balls, second balls and how aggressive we were in our duels, it was all incredible.

“But it wasn’t enough to win the game.”

Quizzed on whether Arsenal must be more clinical in front of goal, Arteta added: “Yes. That’s something we have to do better and it’s cost us two games in four days because we should have won both games.

“We just give the opponent the game. Now we need to come back. We’ve done it before this season and we have to do it again. We’ve had a week now to prepare for the next game against Leeds and our focus is on maintaining all the right things we are doing and the way the team is evolving.

“But we also need to stop certain things that are costing us the games.”

Meanwhile, both legs of Arsenal’s Europa League last-32 tie against Benfica will be played in alternative venues in order to satisfy UK coronavirus restrictions.

Strict quarantine rules around people entering the UK from Portugal has forced the matches, due to be played on February 18 and 25, to be moved from Lisbon and London to neutral territory.

Arsenal have confirmed the first leg will be held at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, and while the venue for second leg is yet to be confirmed, there is talk that the same stadium could be used again.