Mikel Arteta praised his side for making a strong start in their 2-1 win against Bournemouth in the FA Cup 4th round but admitted he was a little disappointed with the way they surrendered their momentum.
The Gunners cruised into a two-goal lead thanks to decisive finishing by Bukayo Saka and Eddie Nketiah but suffered a late scare when Sam Surridge reduced the deficit four minutes into stoppage time. Thankfully, we avoided yet another draw to set up a last-16 clash with Portsmouth in March.
After the game, the boss spoke to BT Sport.
On what his players did best…
The way we started the game and the way they followed what we wanted to do; to generate the spaces and the overloads we wanted. We scored two fantastic goals but after that we became a little bit sloppy in our passing. The rhythm went down and I didn’t like that very much. In the second half, we knew they were going to push and put bodies forward. They are a good side and we allowed them to put crosses in the box. We suffered a little bit and conceded the goal at the end which made it difficult and nervy.
On Saka and Martinelli on the left…
We need to find different ways to generate good situations for us and they have started to understand what I’m looking for from them. I would like us to be a little more flexible in some things we can do but at the moment and with the amount of injuries we have it’s not easy. In general, with the young lads I’m really, really happy today.
On January arrivals…
We’re in the market and the club is trying to facilitate with one or two bodies with the resources we have in this window. I don’t know. When we have something to say, we’ll tell you.
On facing Portsmouth next…
They are all tough. You know, you come away from home in the FA Cup and it will be tough again. Let’s enjoy the win today because we have a lot of games coming up.
1) Lwing – Come next season Saka will push into a wide forward with Martinell likely central (as Auba will likely be poached). Kolasinac and Tierney supporting will both continue to generate LWing productivity. BUT Corresponding Rwing at the moment an issue. nelson injured. Pepe frankly (elephant in the room) crap for 72m. We have yet to strike balance on both wings and this was a problem when Alexis was at the club till now. Would like to see us move in for Ziyech or Fekir still both of whom can also take over duties in the middle in lieu… Read more »
Santori, you keep repeating yourself like a broken record. If you want a job as coach go apply for one at AFC.
Love Arteta’s honesty; he’ll tell you like it is. A true class act.
Captain Scarlet he’s a hero.
I don’t know why but I’ve got a worrying feeling we are going to sell Auba this window. He’s obviously not signing a new deal so would leave in the summer. Given that Barca desperately need a striker and this season is a bit of a write off, I think we may just decide to cash out while the money is good.
and you’re thinking wrong
Would have to be an insane offer to sell him now, especially considering how vital he is to our EL hopes, our most realistic way of getting back into the CL. I think he stays.
From what I understand, they cannot afford him and are looking for cheaper options…
So you don’t believe Auba when he says he is happy and has no intention of leaving?
Am not naive enough to actually simply believe him. If he isn’t just hedging his bets, why not simply “sign da thing”?
Auba is going nowhere; he’s committed to Arsenal, and with Arteta now helping us to play coherent, attacking football, Auba is going to thrive. He’ll sign a new deal, but it is going to cost us.
Makes sense to sell him rather than lose him for free but only one hitch to that; his age. Which team will offer over £60m (we have to profit) for a player past 30? He’ll ask for minimum 3 yr contract with massively high wages. Maybe PSG can. With that in mind, he’s better off resigning with Arsenal and with an improved salary. Plus with what Arteta is doing, we might just get into Europe. Plus he says he’s happy but I guess that happiness will only be proven if he does put pen to paper. Hoping for the best.… Read more »
We don’t exactly have to sell over 60m to get a profit. He has served us well in the time he has been with us, and has considerable recouped his price tag with goals and other contributions. With a 30 yo striker, anything above 25 mil is good enough, I say.
No chance I’d say anything over 80 million we should consider theres not many players that possess Aubas qualities in world football so will be a premium fee if we were to sell
His contract expires in summer 2021 so he is not leaving for free in this one.
I didn’t do Liverpool any harm when selling Coutinho, if its a monstrous sum why not we need to invest in the squad as a whole.
Willock deserves a mention as well as he got 2 assists the assister which I’m led to believe is the new Ozil metric.
Martinelli got the assist on the first
Saka got the second
we don’t do “pre-assists” in football like hockey I’m afraid.
I know that, can’t you spot sarcasm? I will use a different font to make it easier to see that tongue is in cheek.
Portsmouth has won the FA cup more recently than Tottenham.
Definitely a long shot but would love to see Upamenco be a deadline day signing.
Clearly a signing for a defender has to occur now with Mustafi being injured
Upamecano***
Cheers for the report, Andrew.
A site note – I’m finding the new comments pop-up a little distracting! Just my personal feedback (that you didn’t ask for)
Mustafi pinging 60 yard diagonal passes to Saka/Martinelli on the overload was a great feature until he got injured. After that Bournemouth had greater confidence to push up on us.
Arteta has really found potential where we thought there was none. He took a defender who made simple mistakes consistently, into a defender who could consistently help us attack.
Great work sir.
I’m really pleased Laca and Mezut had to watch that game on the bench, if that doesn’t make you wanna go out and impress/compete next game I don’t know what will… Mikel is improving every single player already… Remove Pepe’s price tag, and he’s doing absolutely fine, he didn’t ask for the price tag, none of us paid for him, so lets just let the guy get used to a new country and league ae?
Tete a Arteta. He’s The Man(apologies to Becky Lynch).