Steve Cooper could barely conceal his frustration after Leicester City suffered a heartbreaking 4-2 defeat at the hands of Arsenal, with two late goals snatching a point away from the Foxes at the Emirates Stadium.
The visitors looked set for a well-earned draw after fighting back from two goals down, but their efforts were undone in stoppage time.
Leicester had shown great resilience, with James Justin scoring twice to bring them level after Arsenal had raced into a 2-0 lead before half-time.
The Foxes defended valiantly, determined to hold on for a point, but their hopes were dashed when Wilfred Ndidi inadvertently deflected the ball into his own net.
Kai Havertz then sealed the result for Arsenal with a fourth goal in the dying moments, leaving Leicester empty-handed.
In his post-match interview, Cooper expressed his disappointment, particularly with the officiating. He felt Leicester should have been awarded a free-kick in the lead-up to Arsenal’s first goal and questioned why Riccardo Calafiori wasn’t shown a second yellow card for a challenge on Facundo Buonanotte.
“It was disappointing with the way we concede the goals because they are typical Arsenal goals with the cut-backs, we’ve done a lot of work trying to deal with that,” said Cooper.
“I don’t want to make the headlines around referees, because I’m trying to take responsibility for a team trying to do better in the Premier League, but it’s a clear foul on Jamie Vardy for the first goal and the left-back has to get sent off for a second yellow.
“There’s so much more we could say. The whole game knows, but I’m not going down that road today.”
Despite the loss, Cooper took pride in his team’s resilience, especially after being dominated in the first half. Leicester had given themselves a fighting chance and nearly came away with something from a difficult match.
“Tough one to take, to be fair,” he added. “Proud of the second half performance particularly. If it’s a team that’s not together. It was great to score as early as we did in the second half and then go to 2-2.
“You know you are going to suffer here at times against a really good team like Arsenal at the Emirates. I felt like we were coping really well. To have that deflection for the third goal is just a bit of where our luck is, but then the fourth goal is against the run of play.”
Cooper admitted the result was hard to swallow but saw positives in his side’s fight and urged them to build on their second-half display.