Arsenal lost for the first time in the Champions League this season, as Inter Milan’s first half penalty was enough to give them a 1-0 win.
Mikel Arteta spoke to TNT Sports after the game, and while proud of his players, was unhappy at two first half penalty decisions. Here’s what he had to say.
On how the game went …
I’m very proud of my players and the game we played, the level of domination that we had when we played. I feel like we were very harshly done tonight.
In what sense?
In the sense that it’s obvious.
The penalty?
Yeah, one of them, both.
You feel that Arsenal should have been awarded a penalty.
Well, especially if you’re going to give a penalty in the other box, obviously that one has to be because he punches him in the head.
On Inter’s penalty …
I cannot see [how]. It’s not a shot, it’s just a deflection. There is no danger in the box. There’s nothing you can do. The ball is very, very close to your body, so I don’t know how you can get away from it.
But especially if you’re going to give that one, I think the other one, then it has to be 100% a penalty.
On Arsenal’s chances to score …
For sure, with the amount of situations, chances that we tend to take, we could have scored a couple of goals at least.
But again, the way the team played, that was us tonight. The level of energy, the level of quality, how we arrived in the box, how we dominated a team that is one of the best in Europe in their stadium, I’m very proud of them.
On what’s missing …
Today it was decided in the boxes, which is the Champions League, and every decision in the box makes a difference. It’s clear.
On confidence levels ahead of the weekend ..
The team responds like that. The team plays the way we played tonight here. We can go to Chelsea, we can win.
On Odegaard’s return …
It’s one of the positives we can take as a team.
He has a point, but we also need to be able to break down a deep block, even if Inter are the masters at that and were given the opportunity to play that way thanks to the generous penalty decision. Ødegaard’s return is much needed. Let’s hope he has no reaction to the injury and hits the ground running on Sunday.
FFS….. forget about the penalties.
U get some and you don’t get some.
Move on
Man, you will say this for a CL or WC final?
I mean yeah, the ref is pretty far down the list of reasons we lost. Certainly far below “we can’t attack through the middle” and “we seem incapable of attacking at tempo”
Worrisome that MA thinks that was a good performance at this stage. The creativity was so absent and we relied on aimless crosses and mishit corners. We could of played another 90 minutes and not scored.
What more do you suggest vs a team that sits back and counters with 11 top class players. They won via a dubious penalty, fair. The issue is the players ability they can’t be coached to drop a shoulder past 3 defenders and stick one top corner. If we had Saka / odegaard quality across the front line you tell me we don’t win those games? Inter are one of the best teams in the world and we dictated to them in their own home. You can’t win every game, but surely you can see the bigger picture and progress… Read more »
Inter are the Italian champions, a very difficult side to beat, especially when they’ve got something to protect (lucky/ridiculous penalty). We definitely lacked a cutting edge, but I like the way we retained possession and intensity throughout a lot of the game. Fixable stuff, just need a short break to Dubai in December to get the attacking juices going again.
i don’t think we dominated anything at all. inter likes to play this type of game, they conceded the ball and were happy to just sit back and clear any cross knowing we were not gonna score from it even if we were given 100 more minutes. we don’t have the players to be a team that wins games that way. so while we were once again completely toothless (i really can’t take seriously any match in which martinelli is starting at this point) i think they also defended very well. but yeah, not even close to “dominating”
If they are happy to concede the ball why didn’t they just boot it out of play anytime they got it. Fool. We didn’t even let them counter attack do you understand how hard that is
I thought we were vastly improved in the 2nd half and a bit unlucky not to get a goal. I think if Nwaneri had started or come in earlier we might have got something. He looks really good, a better bet than Trossard at the moment.
Is this the November curse again? Are we in a slump?
I don’t know if I can stomach Mikel talking about games getting decided in the boxes much longer without someone making a meme out of it. Maybe something involving Brad Pitt in Seven – “Whats in the box?? Whats in the fucking box???” and Mikel’s head on top of Kevin Spacey’s body answering “the game being decided” and Brad Pitt going “you lie! You’re a fucking liar! We lacked any creativity whatsoever!”
😂 bravo