It’s fair to say that Mikel Arteta was not impressed with Arsenal’s performance as they went down 2-0 to PSV Eindhoven in Holland.
After the match, the manager touched on what went wrong, the injury that ruled out goalkeeper Matt Turner and whether his team selection for the last group game against Zurich will be affected.
On being disappointed by his team’s performance…
Yeah, it’s the end of a long run. Today is the first defeat after a long, long period. It’s time to reset, analyse what happened, obviously congratulations to PSV they were the better team, they deserved to win the game, there’s no question about it. We were nowhere near our level, especially the way we competed.
On why his side looked second best in the duels…
They were on top of that. Last week, it was all ours and today was very, very different. When that happens against top teams, it’s very difficult to win. Apart from that, there were many aspects where today we were extremely poor.
On whether it’s a result and performance he’s seen coming…
I don’t know, we’ve had periods where we were excellent and periods where we suffer. For sure, we haven’t had the consistency throughout 95 minutes to maintain the level that we want and this is the next challenge and the next aim for this team. But today, it was very different right from the beginning. Even in the first half where we had periods where we controlled the game, I didn’t feel like we had the threat and the aggression that we’ve been playing with. That was worrying. In the second half, the moment something went wrong we just went down and we didn’t find moments to give us some hope to react and get something out of the game.
On how concerned he is with individual performances…
It’s my responsibility to get the best out of the players. I will never do that [in public], these players have been exceptionally good, performing at a level that probably noone expected and it’s down to us and especially me to get the best out of them, that’s it.
On whether his team selection will be affected by having to get a point against Zurich…
We never planned to have a day off on that fixture because we know how difficult it is to win in Europe. You just have to see the other groups and where everybody is. We’re in a really good position, we won four games and we have to finalise the job against Zurich at home, in a week’s time.
On Matt Turner’s injury…
Yesterday in trianing he had some discomfort in his groin. He tried this morning but he wasn’t well so Aaron had to play. We have to assess him, it didn’t look a serious injury.
On Xavi Simons’ performance…
I’m not here to talk about players from the opposition, I’ve got enough with my players.
On Pablo Mari being stabbed in Italy…
I just found out. I know that Edu has been in touch with his relatives and that he’s in hospital and he seems to be ok. I will have a briefing about the situation and we will be in touch with him and hopefully, he’s ok.
On what Arsenal can take from Dutch football…
I’ve always been a big admirer, you have to look in football history at the players and the teams that have been examples for generations with the way they play. Johan [Cruyff] is one of my idols, so he always had a big influence on the way I play the game.
Better to have this performance in the Europa League than in the Premier League. Hopefully, it will give them a kick up the backside and perform well against Forest who aren’t mugs.
Miki…disappointing 😆
This team will break even more
First loss in months and suddenly the sky is falling.
Bore off mate.
Are you an Arsenal fan? Surely not, anyhow, bit of a poor performance, not decisive enough going forwards and a lack of threat gave them confidence. I suppose it’s a better game to lose than a EPL game and with the remaining game against Zurich we should be fine. This result has been coming with the mixing of the players, our subs are really good players but not quite at the same level as the 1st 11, Viera is very much in the infancy of his career which is showing and Eddie probably needs to be more demonstrative as his… Read more »
I think He’s a spud, only comes here after loss or draw
Yep seen him before, you’d think he had better things to do…..
Blips are bound to happen. Especially with our squad depth. So pull yourself together brother!
Said a spurs fan
I don’t believe that gOD is a spurs fan, especially with Jesus playing for us.
“I will never do that [in public], these players have been exceptionally good, performing at a level that probably noone expected”
Fans, we should feel and act exactly the same! Let’s give the team our full backing despite the poor result and performance. I’m immensely proud of our team and they make me feel happy to be a Gooner again! We were aware beforehand that poor results and tiredness would happen at some point and we certainly didn’t expect us to even be in such great position at this point, so let’s be fair and remember that now. COYG!
Great call. Yes, we’re returning to the classy team that we all had remembered so let’s all act like it. Leave the whining to the noisy neighbors and all that
no reason to close your eyes regarding the last couple of games (1:0, 1:0, 1:1, 0:2)
W, W, D (PL), L (EL). I’ll take that. Sure, the perfromance level has dropped, but that’s normal and will always happen to any team. My point was exactly that – despite being aware that we haven’t been at our best, it’s impossible to play brilliantly all the time, and we knew before that this period would eventually happen. And it will happen again. I suffer after every loss, but I’ve decided that I will not let myself be down after generally extremely positive start of the season. The players also deserve to see our understanding of the situation and… Read more »
Can’t upvote you enough, it’s incredible how quickly some people can change their views on this team. The players are looking a little burnt out and dare I say it I think the world cup is coming at a great time.
Like it or not we are playing too many games in such a short period for our team to re energize, 3 of our last 4 games have been away also which takes a toll, thankfully no injury news of yet, every game now to a well rested /drilled team who are not in Europe is going to be a challenge as Leeds/Saints proved, our drop in form is a bit worrying but every side has one, even being top of PL for so long we knew there would be bumps in the road so keep the faith we are… Read more »
We do look like we need a bit of a break. The next two games are home matches against teams that we should be expected to beat. Fingers crossed we find a little mojo before Chelsea.
Should’ve made some subs at halftime in hindsight. Learning curve for both players and manager I hope.
Keep the faith, arses!
Saka seems to have diving problem btw
Another another…. poor performance this is getting alarming,besides we have three worthless players – Vieira , Martinelli , Nketiah.
Blimey, you must be the only person in earth that is alarmed about being top.
Also Martinelli, worthless? Are you feeling ok?
Ha! You silly sausage.
Clearly a spurs fan. Spurs are finished mate, cry harder.
Sod off Shite! Go troll yo mama!
I’d rather we feel the loss now than in EPL. We’ll bounce back for sure. Just hope the players aren’t too tired.
Tiredness – that’s the problem, isn’t it though. Arteta has to keep using the same group of players almost game in and out. We saw against PSV that players outside that group had to be substituted. Until/unless we strengthen the squad so that the quality of the players available is better there’s no way out of it as far as I can see. We’ll need to bounce back pretty quickly as we are unlikely to get anything against the likes of, say, Chelsea playing as we did against PSV.
For me we looked unfocused, which might be a result of tiredness or of just casually wanting to grab the necessary point to top the group and then get the hell out of there and home. PSV on the other hand seemed to be there 110 % physically and mentally. Even though I would put them in the bottom third of the PL, you will get this result in such constellation also against the likes of Everton or Bournemouth. I have a positive outlook, because we have seen great performances this season, so we are capable of a very different… Read more »