Arteta sees positives in Arsenal’s defeat at Inter, Villa slip to Brugge

Arsenal's patchy run of results continued on Wednesday with their 1-0 Champions League defeat at Inter Milan but manager Mikel Arteta had no complaints about his team's performance on a night when they dominated one of Europe's top sides.

Arsenal, who have only two wins from their last six games, hogged possession and had 21 goal attempts to Inter's seven at the San Siro, where the winner came via a controversial penalty on the stroke of halftime.

“The worst thing of the night is the result because the performance, the attitude, the dominance that we showed against one of the best teams in Europe in this stadium, I haven't seen it in all the other games that I've watched...,” Arteta said.

Arsenal are fifth in the Premier League and travel to face fourth-placed London rivals Chelsea on Sunday.

“If we play the way we played, we'll have a big chance to win against Chelsea. That's the way we have to go,” Arteta added.

The Spaniard also provided an injury update on Kai Havertz after the forward was left bleeding from a clash of heads.

“Regarding Kai ... he's got a big cut. He needed to come off because he needed some stitches, but hopefully he's going to be OK for the weekend,” Arteta said.

Inter's Hakan Calhanoglu maintained his incredible penalty record as his spot-kick secured victory for the Italians.

Neither side had conceded a goal in their opening three games in the competition but Arsenal's defence was finally breached in unfortunate fashion on the stroke of halftime after a harsh handball decision against Mikel Merino.

Calhanoglu has now converted 19 out of 19 penalties in all competitions since joining Inter.

Arsenal laid siege to the Inter goal in the second half with Kai Havertz denied by home keeper Yann Sommer and having another effort deflected just wide, but Inter defended superbly to move to 10 points from four games.

Mikel Arteta's Arsenal are outside the top-eight automatic qualifiers for the knockout phase with seven points.

Aston Villa conceded a bizarre penalty in a 1-0 loss at Club Brugge on Wednesday that ended their perfect start to the group stage.

What had been a lethargic performance for Villa turned absurd in the 52nd minute when Tyrone Mings inexplicably picked up the ball, believing it was not in play.

Villa keeper Emi Martinez had just lined up a goal kick, sending a short pass to Mings, who then picked up the ball and gave it back to the Argentinian. The referee pointed to the penalty spot, and Hans Vanaken converted.

Beyond the bizarre incident, the Belgian champions were the better side on the night forcing Martinez to make several key saves to keep his team in the game.

Unai Emery's team, who had won their opening three games of their first Champions League appearance in 41 years, have nine points after four matches, leaving Liverpool top of the table as the only team with a 100% record. Brugge moved provisionally up to 20th in the table on six points. 

Bayern Munich's Jamal Musiala headed home in the second half to give the hosts a 1-0 victory over Benfica as they bounced back from two consecutive defeats in the competition.

Germany midfielder Musiala scored with a bullet header from close range in the 67th minute with Bayern dominating and missing several chances before breaking the deadlock.

The result lifted the Germans to six points from four matches and into 17th place with Benfica, who were toothless in attack, also on six in 19th place.

Europe's top club competition has switched from a group stage to a league phase this season, where 36 teams play eight matches each, with the top eight in the table progressing directly to the next round, while the next 16 teams enter a two-legged playoff.