Mikel Arteta spoke to Sky Sports after Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge this afternoon.
Here’s what he said to say.
If he’s happy or frustrated?
Both, I would say, but obviously the disappointment of not getting those three points is bigger and it will be bigger tomorrow probably and after watching it back because, again, the team stood up.
I think we dominated them, I think we were the better team in many phases and many situations in the game, but as I said going ahead as well, very disappointed where we conceded the goal so poorly, it’s not in our standards.
We don’t accept it and after that, again, the reaction of the team, unbelievable to come here against this team to cause them problems and how aggressive we were. I’m really proud of them, but at the end, we are here to get the three points and we didn’t manage to do it.
What particularly disappointed you with their goal?
It’s a second phase set-piece. We are disorganised because the set-piece is organised in a different way to the low block. We don’t reorganise quick enough and then the ball is inside, you cannot allow a pass that way. And then, of course, there is the quality of Neto, but still, what we do between the defenders and the keepers, we didn’t defend the spaces and our standard is not good enough.
On an early tactical tweak to nullify Cole Palmer …
We had five minutes to defend better the space and understand the jumps and the spaces that we had to prevent. When we’ve done that, obviously, we’re much more dominant. We regained a lot of the balls and they became much more direct because they didn’t want to take the risk. We didn’t do enough with all the balls that we regained.
In open space, we should have damaged them much more. And after that, giving the ball away, sometimes we allowed them to run, which was the contrary of what we wanted. But after that, the team, it showed them again the commitment that they have to win and they are all disappointed, that’s the thing.
Was confidence an issue?
It can be a lot of things. Technical mistakes, decisions, sometimes it’s the opponent. But again, I’m very proud of the team, how they react, the confidence that they play here. They can play in a different way here. I’ve seen a lot of teams here, big teams play here, nowhere near what we’ve done. But we wanted the three points and we didn’t get them.
On Martin Odegaard’s return …
I just said to them, a player who’s been out for six weeks [ed note: it’s a lot longer], really barely trained with the team for two days, to be able to play at this level, 95, 96 minutes in the Premier League, it’s tough. It tells you about how he looks after himself and the leadership and the character that he has. Everything flows better when players are like this and the chemistry that they have with some of them, that’s something that we miss because with the injuries that we have, we have to change a lot of times.
The full-back, the defensive line, the midfield, the front line. Today we clicked much better. You could see that everything was flying. We see the difficulties that they have to adjust a lot of things in their high press. But again, it’s about winning.
Summing up the start to the season going into the Interlull…
In perspective, I would analyse everything better than right now, but obviously we had a very clear intention how we were going to evolve the team and what we could do as a team.
And that was about making the pieces in the car much better, much more efficient, more predictable. What we find out is that every day we have to change something big. You know, the engine, the wheels, the steering wheel, because we have problem after problem.
But the way the team adapts, normally the team goes down. And this team has an unbelievable energy and spirit and courage to play the way we want to play. So I’m very proud of them.
Do you now want to make the team more unpredictable?
Now my biggest fear is physically get everybody at their best, because we have players out there that they cannot play more than 60 minutes. They are playing and struggling, you know. And we have to change a lot of things and face a lot of things. So what I want on the international break is that we are fully fit and we have the squad equipped.
If we get that, I’m fully confident that we’re going to have a great season.
On Saka and Rice injuries …
They don’t look very good, to be fair. I don’t know [if it’s long term], but they both couldn’t finish the game, so not good.
Fuck Chelsea!
9 points off the lead is a long way. We need to take our chances far better, had two big chances towards the end and should have done better. Tough start to the season, hope we can improve asap.
For the Arsenal car this season, we can put the brakes on to stop the opposition, our engine is mostly strong but our accelerator isn’t good enough to speed up into top gear and put the ball away to win our matches.
This tyres me out…
playing with the handbrake on?
think we’ll be better now that we have our satnav back in Martin Odegaard, whose tank never goes empty.
Those two chances you mentioned would probably have been chalked off for offside.
That is my only consolidation for those chances.
But Trossard wastefulness these days is a serious concerns than scoring those offside chances.
Massively worried about Saka, only slight silver lining is that he should be dropped from England duty.
A good performance against a decent team. We were the better and it showed how much we have missed a truly brilliant player and captain.
Hope Mikel just playing the injury game with Saka and Rice for England, and they aren’t actually too bad
“what we do between the defenders and the keepers, we didn’t defend the spaces and our standard is not good enough.”
pretty much tells you that he mostly holds Kai at fault for the goal and not covering neither the pass to Neto nor the player himself. Not saying that to attack Kai myself, I love him and think he generally does an immense job defensively, more that I’m defending Gabriel who was further back and some will look to blame, as it’s typically defenders who get blamed for these things.
“It’s a second phase set-piece. We are disorganised because the set-piece is organised in a different way to the low block. We don’t reorganise quick enough and then the ball is inside, you cannot allow a pass that way. And then, of course, there is the quality of Neto, but still, what we do between the defenders and the keepers, we didn’t defend the spaces and our standard is not good enough.” Hes talking about Partey and Rice being flatfooted in the backline, and neither coming out to put pressure on the runner (Neto) or the pass inside the channel… Read more »
you’re probably right! The main thing is that it’s not on Gabriel or Timber as the defenders in that part of the pitch, as I saw some people blaming them.
Maybe we are not as good as we think we are. Expectations are bit too high. Finishing 4th might be the realistic goal this season.
Not blaming the ref for this game, but I do find it hard to believe how many corners that we should win are given as goal kicks. Seems to happen most games.At one point today, Sky said Chelsea doing well to restrict Arsenal to just one corner. We actually should have had 3 at that point. The corners may have come to nothing, but we should at least have the opportunity, especially as we have the best record in the league. Would be very easy to check the decision if the rules allowed it.
Still can’t believe Caceido was not booked once when Oliver whistled every time we touched anyone wearing a blue shirt tonight
It’s Oliver. What do you expect
“I think we dominated them, I think we were the better team in many phases and many situations in the game, but as I said going ahead as well, very disappointed where we conceded the goal so poorly, it’s not in our standards.” I hope Arteta is not in denial. We easily could have won, but the match seemed very even to me. It is a worry that we have gone so long without a clean sheet in the league. Maybe the forced rotation among our back line is a factor, but I was expecting us to be improved in… Read more »
We didn’t dominate and neither did they. 1-1 was fair. Table doesn’t lie. Too many 5/10 performances so far this season. Need a quick trip to Dubai. Thanks to the Tractor Boys though, that was fun.
So far (with the exception of man United), we played almost all top teams, we played man city, liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, Aston villa, and managed atleast not to lose against anyone of them, despite redcards and refreeing decisions. So there are lots positives to take so far, i still believe the league is ours to lose, nine points are nothing in this league, and liverpool are the least of my worries,because when they start slipping they will slip big, and they will find hard to recover, our only concern should man city, if we caste them away then we are… Read more »
Man United are not a top team.
ManUre are shite!
Simples
Focus on catching City. Liverpool are an unknown and might self-destruct later on. First, catch City.
We totally got what we deserved and have done in many of our games this season so far. Our play is reverting back to Arteta of old. Too many sideways and backwards passing. We are so predictable to play against. All of our play is on the wings. We offer nothing through the middle. And unfortunately, without an out and out striker, we will fail again. Not too sure what’s he’s complaining about really. So many times we had players in space and a one touch pass would have set up play, but instead we take 2-3 touches and let… Read more »
I think dominated them is a bit over the top and it’s all about scoring goals in any case
We haven’t got the firepower and should have strengthened our attack….but that’s been well documented. Great to see Odegaard back though
Too far behind and can’t afford any more slips which is what happened last season. I’m am sure though that we will go on a good run
Dominate is a strong word for a game that could have gone either way.