Saturday 13 May 2017 21:18, UK
Mark Hughes admits his Stoke side were punished with a "hurtful" 4-1 scoreline after allowing Arsenal too much space to play.
Peter Crouch's goal had brought Stoke back into the game with more than 20 minutes remaining after Olivier Giroud (42) and Mesut Ozil (55) had put Arsenal two up at the bet365 Stadium on Saturday.
Alexis Sanchez and another Giroud goal put the Gunners out of sight though, and Hughes admits his side have themselves to blame.
"The margin of the scoreline is hurtful but we didn't help ourselves in key moments," Hughes told Sky Sports.
"I thought we showed real character to come back, get a goal on the board and at that point the crowd were with us and Arsenal were shaken. But you've got to keep the back door shut.
"If you allow quality players, and Arsenal have certainly got them, to play incisive passes behind your back four then you've got to be able to deal with that and unfortunately that's what has taken the game away from us."
The home defeat leaves Stoke 13th on 41 points with just one game remaining for the Potters, and subsequently means they cannot achieve a top-half finish this season.
Former Manchester City, Blackburn and Fulham boss Hughes will face a bottom-half Premier League finish for the first time in his managerial career, but the Welshman brushed off the issue.
"That's disappointing but that's not the issue from my point of view," he added. "I've got a good record in my 13 odd years in the Premier League, and this is my first time out of the top 10, I think we've just got to be better next year.
"There's certain parts of our play which are good, we can cause problems to good teams, but in key moments in games when you have to be resolute and strong minded, we've let ourselves down. So we'll address that in the summer."
