Arsenal suffered a setback in the quest for a first league title since 2004 as Sean Dyche’s Everton condemned Mikel Arteta’s out-of-sorts side to a 1-0 defeat at Goodison Park.
James Tarkowski’s second half header from corner did the damage on an afternoon when the Gunners wilted in the heat of battle against the backdrop of a fervent home atmosphere.
After the game, the manager faced the BT Sport cameras. Here’s what he had to say…
On the performance…
We started well but after 20 minutes we started to lose a little bit of control, we started to play a little bit the game they wanted to play. We had loads of the ball but we lacked purpose and quality in the final third to generate many more chances. On a set piece, it’s what they do, you concede and after they slowed the game down, they do that really well, and we were struggling to come back into the game.
On struggling to cope with high balls…
They do it to every team, that’s their strength. When you see the height they have in the team, their physicality is one of their main strengths. You want to beat them, you have to control that aspect and today we didn’t do it. With the ball, when we progressed into the final third, we have to create much more than what we’ve done today.
On what he was telling his players when he asked them to calm down…
More composure and to control emotionally the game better. If not, you start to get in the game that they want to play, everything is in and out, there are a lot of duels and free-kicks. We made so many free-kicks in the last 10 to 12 minutes that are unnecessary, that’s what they want.
On the mood in the dressing room…
What I told them is that today, I love them much more than a week ago, a month ago, six months ago. It’s easy to be next to someone that is winning and playing well, now it’s the moment to be next to them because they deserve it, fully deserve it. I’m so proud to coach these players.
On a roller coaster ride ahead…
This is not going to be a rosy pathway, it’s going to be tricky, difficult and you’re going to have to react to disappointment, you’re going to have to dig in and to play a lot better than we did today, for sure.
Not good enough today, hopefully some lessons will be learned.
It was going to happen eventually and that new manager bounce did it today, regardless of how we played it is now about how we react, the media are going to love this and get on our backs, we’ve just gotta silence them the only way we can, get back to winning ways #COYG
i blame that goddamn manager of the month award
Just glad we didn’t pick up any serious injuries on that turnip patch in that atmosphere. Their players were flying in.
We lost, so how we react is all that matters…
“What I told them is that today, I love them much more than a week ago, a month ago, six months ago. It’s easy to be next to someone that is winning and playing well, now it’s the moment to be next to them because they deserve it, fully deserve it. I’m so proud to coach these players.”
I mean. What a guy. What a guy.
Great psychology
Totally. I’m sure there was a bit of a hairdryer at halftime. But now it’s time to remind these lads how special they are.
Love this. I wish he was my wife.
“Johnny, you came all over our bedsheets while I was out. And I love you even more for that. It’s easy to love you when you’re writing shit hot comments on arseblog and being a relatively good father. But you deserve to hear this now. I’m so proud to be your wife”.
She sounds amazing
Comment of the year nominee right here folks
😂
Stop it Johnny 🙂
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
🤣
,🤣🤣🤣
You will always learn more from a defeat than a victory. Take this one on the chin, Everton deserved the win and we have to move on.
Always learn more from people that you disagree with than the people you agree with!
My thoughts too.
I wouldn’t swap Arteta for any other manager – and that includes Pep.
Things could be an awful lot worse at the moment – look at the state of Liverpool for starters. 0-3 against Wolves, lol.
And as for Dyche, he’s just a fat bald cunt with permanent laryngitis. I hope that lot get relegated; I will laugh my nuts off if it happens.
Hopefully we can give them a hand by smashing the shit out of them at the Emirates.
Text book Pep.
It must be quite disappointing in that dressing room. Brentford is an opportunity to get it out of their system quickly.
Yep.
Make no mistake, the next two games – both at the Emirates – will be an absolute cauldron of noise.
Perfect for normal service to be resumed. 😉
To be fair to Arteta, he doesn’t let the team wallow in misery. This game was a less in complacency, and we know we’re better than this.
We weren’t up for it from the very first minute. Some of the lads just didn’t turn up at all. It’s a slap in the face & they should learn that champions in February is not the same as actual champions. Very disappointing, but we go again.
P.S. Go ahead and downvote all you like, but seeing the fake pirlo chelsea pensioner in an Arsenal shirt was the icing on today’s shit cake.
Agreed- you can’t expect a player who has never shown a huge amount of effort or hustle to provide the energy and connection our midfield was lacking.
The team are still top pal, it’s an unfortunate result but these things happen. You can say it’s not championship winning mentality but we’re the youngest squad in the league and performing at a level no one expected. Learn to react to defeat better, no one will be more annoyed than Mikel and we have an opportunity to get back to winning ways before a show down at home to city. It could be worse we could be spurs fans.
You have a week quitters mindset
Fuck off
Relax it’s just a football game
OK.
We didn’t start, or finish, we’ll. Don’t know what he’s on about here- we looked slow, lazy, and entitled. Ofc it didn’t help the ref was dogshit and let the crowd call the game, but the subs offered very little and no adjustments were made to try and up the tempo in the second half. Poor performance from everyone, manager and coaches included.
I’d just like to state that Maupay is like the whole of Chelsea, its fans, players and cunt owner, rolled into one single person. Maupay is a shit human being.
Let’s say it like that. If he died in a car crash anytime soon, I probably wouldn’t mind and/or be sad about it. I would probably state that he faked it, but after having it confirmed that he is really gone, I would apologize for that on twitter.
Bruh, come on… It’s not that deep.
A few deep breaths should cheer you up!
Chuck Felsea 😂
What a great incognito alias name for Stan or Josh to adopt, were the occasion to demand it.
Ugh having to wish good will to the lot down the road vs man city.
Still need to remember we woulda but the hand off anyone that offered us this position at the start of the season. We go again, let’s bounce back!!!!
If losing a game or two is a sign of everything collapsing then we can safely write off the entire Premier League,
It was one game where we just didn’t turn up.
Man City have had them so have Real and Bayern.
And it is absolutely fine.
Just take stock, re-focus and look to learn from it.
Arsenal will be just fine..
We really missed ESR and Jesus today.
We didn’t miss ESR – he has hardly figured at all this season..
We were not good enough for much of the game. Did not deserve to win. Not the end of the world and no need to be a profit of doom about one defeat. We are doing very well.
So this is what losing in the Prem feels like. Can’t say I missed it, but here we are.
Let’s get behind the boys and push on! A stupid loss like that was on the horizon anyway. Now the reaction counts. Let’s be a part of it! COYG!
A game like today is where we really could use a player like Jesus that can get by two to three people in the box and create quick shots. I could tell it was going to be a tough match for us from the beginning with how many they were playing behind the ball and how well organized they were defensively. We have got to figure out a way to get more chances created against that type of setup as we will see it so often the rest of the way.
That’s a game we would have lost last year.
We need a top class striker if we want to win trophies
We’ve got one.
We’ve got two already and another one out on loan, ready for August.
Agreed. You won’t find many teams with a better three strikers as a whole.
Arteta shows character and intelligence of a man well beyond his years. Easy to blame the players after a defeat or look for excuses, but he rises above that and shows mental maturity they need, theres a way to go yet.
It’s hard to learn that you have to be honest and compassionate to the core. He’s a fantastic manager and we’ll only get stronger from this.
Lets be honest with ourselves 2 defeats and no goals scored in our last 2 games, since our awful endeavours in the January transfer window the nuts of our wheels in gaining the PL are slowly unscrewing, i was hoping we didn’t sign anyone and give the players on the bench a chance when needed, outing the guys that have been supportive to the 1st eleven in every game knowing that they are rarely going to be used is an upset not only to them but our starting line up, like last season’s attempt at being in top 4 we… Read more »
A big lesson from this one:
Opponents will notice the success both Newcastle and Everton have had in doubling up on Saka and Martinelli. Need to direct more of the attack down the middle. Here’s hoping for an earlier than expected return of Jesus to the side.
Wenger gave Pires and Freddie freedom to switch wings whenever they felt like it. I’m surprised Saka and Gabi don’t do the same.
Can’t remove martinelli when we are trailing. Need to think about how Viera can be brought in somehow, maybe in place of xhaka or some full back
Said some goods words in the interview but in private I hope he ripped them apart as we were awful and totally bottled it. When we lost against Utd we actually played really well but this defeat was worrying. Only hope we have the same response as we did after the only other loss. Come on!
There are a lot of aspects we need to change as a team, thing turn up as they ought to, it needs to happen, for us to grow to another level, unless we don’t know our weaknesses where can we strengthen the team and reflect to see where we can better ourselves in terms of disappointing loses, and how we can play to win the next games with agility, vigor, while being outstanding in our approach to every game forward.
Please stay together! Play the right players!!! This league is Arsenal’s!!! We waiting for the trophy! Just do it! Up the Gunners!