Mikel Arteta says Arsenal dropped two points in the North London derby after his side produced a sloppy and disjointed performance that was exacerbated by an injury to midfielder Declan Rice.
In an end-to-end encounter, the Gunners were twice pegged back by Son Heung-Min who bailed out teammate Cristian Romero after the Argentina international sliced through his own net and then was penalised for a handball that Bukayo Saka converted from the spot.
Arsenal pushed for a late winner as the game entered 10 minutes of stoppage time but they struggled for composure in the final third with the visitors snapping at their heels.
After the game, Mikel Arteta faced questions from Sky Sports. Here’s what the manager had to say.
On the performance and result…
We feel like we lost two points. It’s true that there was quite a lot of interchange in dominance in the game, but especially when we had more control and more dominance in the game and scored the goal, they scored straight away. And it was at one nil, we had the huge chance for Gabi [Jesus]. They were big moments for us. To do that, we still come back in the game, we started quite good [in the second half] and scored the goal and straight away you can see it. Emotionally, I think that was a difficult one to take. I think we struggled for a period of 10-15 minutes there. We lacked a lot of composure with the ball and we made a basketball game. But then at the end, in the last 15-20, again, we pushed, we pushed, we pushed, but we couldn’t get a winner.
On whether Arsenal suffered from bad luck…
I don’t know. Obviously, the hardest thing to do is to put the ball in the net. We’ve done it twice, but I think we conceded two really, really poor goals. And against this level, you know they’re going to punish you because they have top players.
On the two goals scored by Sp*rs…
Obviously we were disappointed in the way we conceded the goals, but mistakes are part of football and you have to live with them.
On the decision to award Arsenal a penalty for handball…
I haven’t seen the replay but straight away I looked at the bench and they were so convinced that we were going to get the penalty.
On Declan Rice having to go off at half time…
He was really uncomfortable during the match. He had some back issues and we had to take him out. A
On whether he feels pride given the injury situation [Arsenal were also without Jurrien Timber, Thomas Partey, Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard]…
We lost four huge players and today we lost Declan as well but we play on Wednesday and these are the things that we have to get used to. We did a lot of things in the game to be able to to win it but when you make mistakes like this in this game it becomes really difficult.
A lot talk about Sakas playing time. I think White needs a break too. Arteta has to rotate better.
What we missed was Xhaka’s team huddle straight after taking the lead. It worked a treat last season. Someone needs to step up and be the new boss on the pitch.
Despite being a real culprit, no body seems to blame Jorginho Borginho foe the result because in general the whole team was clumsy at times.
Aw bless ‘em, only playing one game per week for most of last season and this year will be different but they all wanted champions league so can’t have everything. Try working down the mines or in construction, overpaid prima donnas
Where the fuck did this comment come from, 1975? Roy Keane? (By the way, for good or bad, I don’t think anyone works down the mines in England anymore.)
I thought he got the second half very wrong today, appreciate we were very limited in terms of options, but bringing on Jorginho and leaving him on his own in central midfield was the worst possible idea that was always destined to fail. The signals in the first half from Spurs were all about the midfield battle, we had to match their dynamism at a minimum, I think if he did that then we probably edge that game out. Cant understand how Havertz is still getting minutes in the role that he sees him in. He offers nothing. So we… Read more »
Sadly Arteta sucks at rotating. Tomi would have done a good job.
Arteta should stop over thinking. He is no galaxy brain. Keep it simple in training and on the pitch. Keep troops fresh so that they don’t switch off in matches like today.
As fans we can only hope the team goes the distance in FA cup. Rest of trophies seem far out of reach (& League cup doesn’t count).
Pep, is that you??
Jorginho switching off wasn’t down to lack of freshness.
Why are so many Arsenal fans against the League Cup. City have won a a few on the trot, the great Liverpool team of the 70/80s won 4 in a row and were also winning titles and European cups alongside it. It’s a trophy and all you have been blinded by Wengers attitude which was piss poor as he didn’t help him win any European trophy let alone the champions league. (Or any more titles after 2004!)The joy I got from winning it in 87 against Liverpool was as great as any FA cup win. Wenger brats
Maybe people find it hard to get enthusiastic about a competition that was conceived as a consolation prize for those teams knocked out of the FA Cup. Even the sponsors of the League Cup get bored after a while! It’s been the Milk Cup, Rumbelows Cup, Littlewoods Cup, Coca Cola Cup, Worthington Cup, The Garage Down The Road That Does Resprays Cup, and others. Mind you, if we can’t win the League or the FA Cup, it’s better than nothing I suppose. I still got very excited when we won the Charity, sorry, Community Shield this year.
He is the like.
Let’s face it. Spurs broke our rhythm. They played well.
Fresher than us
Back issues sounds worrying for Rice. It kept Saliba out for a long time.
And Ozil
No one player can think they played well today. We were really off the boil for large chunks of that game. Got to criticise some of Arteta’s decisions to this season. He keeps persisting with an average Nketiah to lead the line, when it’s becoming more and more obvious he offers very little from a productivity perspective. The injuries aren’t helping, but they’re just papering over the cracks of what has been a very average season.
You can’t criticize Nketiah here. You will be downvoted badly. Nelson should have started on the left and Jesus at 9.
Eddie is perhaps the worst player in the sqaud and keeps getting consistent minutes.
Reality is he would struggle to lead a championship side.
Like Leeds utd?
Spot on.
Nketiah was dreadful today should have been him that came off and not jesus.
You are spot on about nketiah just not good enough. Ok for 10-15 mins to see games out with his running etc. but that is literally it. He was appalling today he didn’t even look sharp or engaged apart from maybe the first 5mins in terms of pressing.
I’ve backed Eddie since he got the two off the bench in the league cup many moons ago. After today I admitted to myself it was more hope and optimism. Some strikers don’t score lots of goals but they’re in the team because they offer something else to a very high level. I don’t see what Eddie offers us anymore. As a starter anyway. Then I cast my mind back to how spoiled we were when Wiltord and Kanu were arguably or third and fourth choice strikers. We really need to invest heavily in strikers because there is no immediate… Read more »
Eddie Out! Enough of mediocrity.
Forget about the title we will be struggling to finish in the top 4.
Unfortunately your decisions caused that.
We could all see that Eddie need to be pulled at half time.
We could all see Raya should have been pulled and replaced with Ramsdale.
We could all see Havertz wasn’t the answer.
Very bad result.
Arteta did say he wanted to do tactical goalkeeper subs. If anyone was going to do that it would be him
That’s exactly my point. Does that means this is actually bollox. Ramsdale had better start the next game. This isn’t Brentford buddy, you’re playing with the big boys now and AR understood that quickly.
Very disappointing result, the performance was quite underwhelming and we’ve suffered some significant injury blows. As an optimist I’m struggling for positives – I can’t even chuckle about is injuring Maddison as they’ve done rice and Saka – a bad one and hopefully character building 😬
what strategy was that to put ESR at 96min. what will the guy do in 3min?
I am getting REALLY mad about this ESR treatment. Let the boy play ffs. Today, no Martinelli and Trossard, he should be seeing at least 30 minutes of football. Must we run Saka into the ground when we have the likes of ESR sitting on the bench? Baffling.
It’s so strange that Arteta can be ruthless with Ramsdale and Tierney but so indulgent with Eddie. We desperately need a quality striker. Eddie will never be the man.
Embarrassing to see the contrast between Maddison and Havertz. So far I’ve seen nothing to justify signing the German.
Arteta needs to either get wise or go. We are not moving forward.
The worst part was it’s clear Gary Neville was making negative comments to incite arsenal fans – but there are some elements that are true, and my natural instinct is to do whatever it takes to make the anti-arsenal brigade look foolish.
I’m generally an optimist and seek to praise positive aspects rather than criticise negative aspects – but watching us move the ball side to side in that end phase was pretty hard to be positive about
But we are not exactly moving backwards either.
I agree with your thoughts on Havertz – a traffic cone would have more impact.
As for Eddie – would he get in Man City’s squad? Not a chance – he is not good enough if you want to challenge.
If Jesus isn’t fit enough to stay on then surely for me you put Havertz down the middle (Where he has had his best minutes for us) so others can play off him, you then put Nelson of the left and Smith Rowe in the 8 at that point. It was clear for all to see that it wasn’t Eddie’s day, his touch let him down on a number of occasions which meant there was no relief of pressure when he got it forward, Spurs found it easy against him to win it back and push on
I agree about Eddie but if you’re going to compare different midfielders who do different jobs you’ll likely be unimpressed.
No: but I can compare value for money. Maddison was a steal compared to the fortune we’ve paid for Havertz.
Maddison should have gifted us a goal if Jesus hits the net. Imagine what you guys would say if havertz did that
Fair point that’ll be lost in the cross fire
Jesus has always been a below average finisher. That’s why pep let him go. If arteta is worried about the fine margins, the reason he wanted to change keepers, why not buy one or two top strikers
Get those 2 Chelsea twats out of my club
They are not Chelsea twats, they are my and your club’s players.
So were Willian, Gallas and Luiz, Cech as well. Bit of a trend building.
The Jorginho thing felt match fixy. It wasn’t but Jesus h Christ man. He had eons on the ball!!!!!
I was surprised that our priority wasn’t a clinical striker in the last transfer window.
It was the difference today.
There was literally no difference today. It was a draw.
Arteta wanted another keeper to prove how smart he is
What is this “we lost four huge players” thing? Timber had a very promising start in preseason, but do not call him already huge please!
I think we were lucky. That is not good enough.
Obviously anything other than a win against them is frustrating, but I’m concerned about the injuries more than the result.
We’re one error and a sloppy corner away from being joint top and that’s the reality of the fine margins we face. Behind the pace today, probably due to CL but we could have beaten spurs best 11. That says something.
Let’s hope no injuries are long term.
Two points dropped for sure. But I’m holding off on spiralling into despair for now. More inclined to think the timing of this fixture was a bit unfortunate. We just blew our “big game/moment” load on PSV and didn’t have enough juice in the tank to get it done against a somewhat competent side like sp*rs. We match the intensity shown against man u, it’s a different result, no doubt. Better squad rotation and load management, we’ll be alright… hopefully Arteta figures it out.
I read some of the nasty comments about Eddie, Hazard and others on this website (and others) from supposed fans and whilst they may not be having the best time, they are still our players and the scapegoating is frankly disgusting. We as a fanbase don’t deserve nice things. Too many knuckleheads.
Well single out those who said the nasty comments and to others like myself who has said all along he is not good enough if we want to be s top team, you can give an opinion as to why he is good enough if you believe it and not take take the very easy stance of judging everyone else by accusing them of scapegoating.
Prime Hazard? Or fat Hazard?
Just saw the first half again. Spurs could barely get out of their own half till the 40th minute. Our press was suffocating them completely. Around the 15 min mark Udogie plays a horrible back pass and puts Eddie through on goal, but the angle is too tight he can only go between the keepers legs or he has to wait and cut it back for Vieira, instead he just blasts it near post. 40th minute Vieira puts pressure on the ball, Rice intercepts it and plays it to Eddie who is in acres of space. All he has to… Read more »
Spot on. Brilliant comment. From the lineup, to the substitutions, to the poor execution, it was an infuriating match.
Perfectly put – skating away on the thin ice of a new day (apols, Mr Anderson!)… lovely lad but he just ain’t top level. That 30m for Flo is looking more and more like blood money. Seriously though – your most incisive point is this: Eddie plays at the cost of: (a) forcing an increasingly in-form Jesus (ask PSV!) out wide where his trickery can be narrowed against the touchline; (b) keeping a rejuvenated ESR on the bench until 4 mins to go (wtf was that?!) (c) starving the Ever-Ready Reiss of the opportunity to really play himself into our… Read more »
I was fuming at that 97 minute cameo. Add that with Arteta barking instructions to ESR. Fuming. He’s making our players run into the ground. He better learn to rotate quickly or he’ll be the next one to be rotated
Great decision in the summer to get a new keeper rather than an upgrade on Partey who is often injured. We brought in rice but lost xhaka.
With rice injured, our midfield is now Vieira and jorginio with havertz as a sub. Hilarious.
You can close your eyes and dream about the league, but I think we do not have the squad depth for example to care the injury situation properly.
It’s not going to work. Arteta is buying into football as it is these days, but what made him successful last season was that he had values that transcended the game at hand