Sunday 22 November 2015 13:56, UK
Mathieu Flamini has refused to blame Santi Cazorla for his penalty slip during Arsenal's defeat at West Brom.
Cazorla slipped backwards and sent his late spot-kick, which could have levelled the score at 2-2, sailing over the crossbar at the Hawthorns.
Arsenal lost 2-1 and missed the chance to go top of the Premier League - and Flamini says the Gunners in general have no excuses for defeat.
"The penalty - it can happen - and there is nothing you can do about Santi falling," Flamini said.
"We tried and tried and tried until the last minute but we can't give any excuses - we lost the three points. It's a shame because we started the game well, we went 1-0 up, and then after it became more difficult for us.
"We tried to push on in the second half, had some opportunities, but of course it is disappointing because we didn't get any points.
"Sometimes it happens and now it is important to recover and focus on the next game."
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger also could not blame Cazorla, instead pointing to a generally poor performance.
He said: "I have seen a few but I don't really know what happened. You can talk to him and he is so disappointed and it is difficult to blame Cazorla for that."
