Mikel Arteta felt Arsenal should have taken something from this evening’s 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa after squandering a series of chances following John McGinn’s early opener.
Watching from the stands, the manager was clearly frustrated with his side’s lack of cutting edge in the final third.
He was probably even more annoyed by some of the decisions that went against his side – Gabriel Jesus felt he should have been awarded a penalty early in the second half and Kai Havertz had a late goal ruled out for a handball – but the Spaniard wouldn’t be drawn into making further comments about the officials.
Here’s what he had to say when he spoke to Sky Sports…
On his team’s performance…
Yeah, a really good performance. I thought we were the better team and we didn’t deserve to lose the game at all, but this is football.
On the referee ruling out a late equaliser for handball…
I prefer not to comment.
On the officials not awarding Gabriel Jesus a penalty…
No, I think that’s even clearer.
On having an opinion but not wanting to say anything for fear of getting in trouble…
I do, a big opinion, yes.
On his side not scoring…
We have to put the ball in the net and that’s the only thing that we missed today because we generated some big, big chances. We were winning the ball really high up. Villa didn’t create anything but we still lost the game.
On whether fatigue was a factor…
No, because a team that is fatigued, it doesn’t press, it doesn’t go, it doesn’t insist, it doesn’t dominate the game like we did today. It’s impossible.
On Villa deserving credit…
Yeah, they are a really good side and they are in a good moment right now and we congratulate them, that’s what we have to do.
Villa to win the league!!
Villa can fuck off.
Is that John Gregory?
Agree with most of it, barring the fatigue answer. Bad decision making is also evidence of fatigue. It’s a credit to his drilling and their commitment that they don’t let up on the other things.
Smith-Rowe, Nelson, Vieira, Nketiah, Partey – that’s five players you can’t trust to start games in the crowded part of the season for different reasons. We should’ve fixed some of that in the summer, we really should fix it in Jan if we are serious about a title.
Partey likes to party, Smith rowe I would give the benefit of the doubt because there’s a very good player there. The other 3 good players but not of the standard we need.
Feels like we’re not given anything our way VAR or ref wise since Miki rightly kicked off at geordies decision, that said with so many sloppy passes from defence and offence we still should of won this game given the chances we created, thats football i suppose, we move on, PSV up next, as its a nothing game for us i still expect Miki to put out a strong side even with Ramsdale, Nketiah, Reiss, Kiwior, Trossard, Elneny, Cedric starting .
Feels like all 50/50’s go against us right now.
We don’t get the soft second yellow decision like Liverpool vs Palace.
We don’t get the Nketiah elbow red, the Gabriel Jesus possible penalty, or the Havertz goal.
Some decisions might be okay, but why don’t we ever get the 50/50’s?
It’s not even 50-50. The Jesus penalty was stone wall. Any sane, neutral ref would’ve given it, especially with the benefit of replays. We aren’t getting it because the PGMOL is corrupt to its core. The game is no longer a sport. It’s just entertainment, with VAR taking center stage and giving talking points for the media to waffle about to generate views. The PGMOL is corrupt and incompetent. Human errors are random, but the decisions against Arsenal is targeted and wholly biased. Which other manager is getting banned for over celebration after a last gasp winner? Klopp didn’t get… Read more »
The same refs have a conflict of interest after being treated to a weekend of officiating in the Gulf league by the man city chairman and being treated to a weekend of African/Philippino migrant worker bonanza but it’s me who will get the brunt of your ire 🤷♂️
So rules state that only the attacker’s unintentional close quarters handball should be counted but not the defender’s. Stupid rule but that’s the letter apparently. The elbow and the penalty are quite obviously corrupt decisions IMO though. And I mean corrupt, not incompetent. And what concerns me is that even some Arsenal fans are normalising it saying things like: “we need to be more clinical” as “we have to realise we’re not gonna get the 50/50s”. No, we created enough to panic them into giving an away a clear penalty. No, we should have played the last 10 minutes against… Read more »
Scratching my head abit about the late disallowed goal. Felt there should have been more boots in Martinez’s face
We worth at least a draw, it doesn’t matter that we weren’t at our best. The anti Arsenal bias by the referees is fucking laughable now. How are supposed to win every game when playing against 11 players, a corrupt ref and corrupt VAR team. When is something going to be done? This has to stop!
Horrible defending on their goal, especially by Zinchenko, but White is certainly at fault as well not being close to their player allowing him to receive, turn and shoot that close without any pressure. We certainly had our chances, but missed too many ones we should have buried.
White has been off this season. Allows players to proceed too easily
For me Zinchenko should be know where near this team. Cant defend anything, no pace, cant header a ball to save his life, He slows our game down so much with ponderous play in midfield or picking it up at the back its so frustrating to watch. I get that he has good points as well but the mistakes or lack of vision for a through ball seem to cost us to much.
I religiously read this blog and am an avid gooner. It goes without saying it am gutted by the loss today… Having said that I can’t help but feel it was predetermined. I had an incling that no matter what we would be f*&ked over today. Which leads me to the question… What can we do about this? The game we love so much has been corrupted to a point that it is predictable (as sh*t as it is to reconcile). What can we as supporters do to change this corrupt status quo?
Stop watching. It’s all about the money now, sporting integrity stopped over 20 years ago when the league welcomed Abromavich. This money machine will keep on churning until people stop giving it money. Same with FIFA and UEFA. When there is blatant corruption at the top of the game, it infects all of the FA’s worldwide who participate in the corruption.
Villa are lucky the ref union hates and have a vengeance against us.
So there is no need for them to pay up like the Arab teams
Jesus out please
How can they disallow the goal for it touching Havertz hand unintentionally, but not bring it back for a penalty as it also hit the Villa player’s arm? Either both are handball or neither, both players made no intentional attempt to handle the ball.
That’s not the rule.
We’re a better team than Villa, in every single department. That difference wasn’t so obvious at the weekend. If we take our chances, none of this matters. We didn’t. We only have ourselves to blame for not making an incompetent referee a moot point.
Is it the done thing to say that, defensively, Ben white has been a bit crap this season? Going forwards, still so good, but defensively he’s been found wanting time and time again. Needs to go back to basics.