Following defeat at Newcastle at the weekend, Arsenal were on the wrong end of another 1-0 scoreline against Serie A champions Inter in Milan on Wednesday night.
Hakan Calhanoglu scored the game’s only goal from the penalty spot in first-half stoppage time after Mikel Merino was judged to have handled the ball in the Arsenal penalty area. The Gunners dominated possession after the break and came closest to an equaliser when Denzel Dumfries cleared a Gabriel header off the line. A first Champions League defeat of the season leaves Arsenal 12th at the halfway stage of the 36-team league phase.
Here’s what the managers, players, pundits and stattos had to say after the game …
Mikel Arteta on decisive penalty shouts …
We were very harshly done by in the sense that is obvious. Both penalties. If you are going to give a penalty, the other one has to be because he punches him in the head. There is no deflection, nothing you can do in the box, so can he get away from it. If he is going to give that the other has to be 100% a penalty.
Source: TNT Sports (per BBC Sport)
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Martin Keown on the penalty awarded to Inter …
It was a controversial moment. Fine margins. I don’t believe it was a penalty and I feel it was really harsh. Where are you supposed put your arm in that position? Who’s made these rules? Have they played the game?
Mikel Merino is so close to Mehdi Taremi and the arm has come up to go into a challenge – it is really harsh. Merino is preparing to go with his first action and then the ball deflects.
Source: TNT Sports (per BBC Sport)
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20 – Arsenal attempted 20 shots in this match, their most without scoring in a single UEFA Champions League fixture since November 2006 against CSKA Moscow (23). Frustration. pic.twitter.com/NSHrfrbxTR
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 6, 2024
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Simone Inzaghi on beating Arsenal …
I think Arsenal are one of the best teams we have faced in our European path in recent years. It’s right to enjoy a victory like this as much as we can, but let’s not stop. I’m happy with the solidity of the team. It was a very important, desired and hard-fought victory against a top level team.
Source: UEFA.com
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Mikel Arteta on the positives …
We should have scored a couple at least but the way the team played, that was us at least. Every decision in the box makes a difference. The way we played tonight, the team can go to Chelsea and win.
Source: TNT Sports (per BBC Sport)
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Make that 8 clean sheets in 11 Champions League matches for Yann Sommer at Inter. 😮💨#UCL https://t.co/LHH84VQ06s
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) November 6, 2024
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Mikel Arteta on injury concerns …
Kai Havertz had a big cut and hopefully he will be OK for the weekend. [Mikel Merino] was not concussed, yesterday he was not feeling great and I decided to take him off as I needed him 100%.
Source: BBC Sport
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Thierry Henry on Arsenal’s title hopes …
Inter are comfortable to give you the ball. Were (Arsenal) brave or did Inter give them the ball? Let’s see against Chelsea at the weekend.
I don’t know what we’re going to do, I’ll be honest. I know today we were 1-0 down and had to attack and Inter gave them the ball. Right now they aren’t challenging for league, obviously as you can see, they are not good enough to be able to be at the top. There’s still a long way to go.
Source: CBS Sports
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Arsenal’s stats tonight:
■ 46 crosses
■ 13 corners
■ 20 shotsAnd they still couldn’t find a way through Inter’s defence 🧱 pic.twitter.com/g9aR2NoCF3
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) November 6, 2024
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Marcus Thuram on whether Inter let Arsenal have the ball …
Sometimes by default, sometimes by design. Sometimes we like to bring the team a bit closer to our goal to counter attack them and sometimes the other team takes control of the game, emotions — you know how they are — they try to score, we try not to concede, and the game changes and shifts a bit.
Source: CBS Sports
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Matthew Upson on Inter …
A defensive masterclass. Inter were not giving the home fans something to get off their seat. But the way they defended the box, it was top, top stuff from the three centre-backs.
Source: BBC Sport
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Eddie Nketiah was the last player to score an away European goal for Arsenal. Less than a year ago but feels so much longer somehow
— Tom Ede (@TomEde1) November 6, 2024
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Rio Ferdinand on what Arsenal need more of …
They are getting into good areas, Arsenal, around the box, but then it is about the overlaps, underlaps and creating two v ones – I don’t think they are doing that enough.
Source: TNT Sports
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Martin Keown on the current run of form …
I don’t think there is a massive crisis for Arsenal. I don’t think they are far away from getting it right, yes they’re not scoring goals, but Ethan Nwaneri coming on, he should have been on a bit earlier.
Source: BBC Sport
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Arsenal in away matches in the Champions League in 2024:
Porto 1-0 Arsenal ❌
Bayern Munich 1-0 Arsenal ❌
Atalanta 0-0 Arsenal 🤝
Inter Milan 1-0 Arsenal ❌ pic.twitter.com/mNb2PJAm1B— afcstuff (@afcstuff) November 6, 2024
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Ally McCoist on Arsenal’s final third struggles …
They just didn’t look like scoring, Arsenal. I don’t think it was an entertaining or great game but, for example, I’m looking at Inter and they’ve got three forwards on the park — three proper forwards — [Mehdi] Tahremi, [Lautaro] Martinez, and they brought [Marcus] Thuram on. Arsenal didn’t really have any forwards in that ilk.
Source: TNT Sports
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Mikel Arteta on heading to Stamford Bridge …
If we play the way we play, we‘ll have a big chance to win against Chelsea. That‘s the way we have to go. I told them that I’m proud of them. I haven‘t seen them play in Europe in the manner that we have today. We are disappointed because we didn’t get what we wanted out of the game, that’s for sure.
Source: Arsenal.com
Are we overcoached? I’m finding it really frustrating that players are playing just because we can only play 1 system. I’d be a bit more content losing and having tried a new formation we different players. Would Nwaneri or Jesus be any worse than Trossard? Would Sterling on the left be worse than Gabi? Is Merino of the requisite quality to be starting for us? Was he the right kind of player we needed after getting shot of 2 creators? A lot of questions, as bad as the decision was – we need more of a plan B than cross… Read more »
I’m with you on a lot of this; Arteta has been stubborn about some of his questionable personnel choices in the past, and persists with Merino too much now, doesn’t rotate as much as he perhaps could. It took him a while to figure out Havertz as well. I do think we found something in this game structure wise that has been lacking, namely the overly fluid buildup was ditched in favor of the classic 3-2-5 structure we’ve used for years before this season. The newly introduced fluidity was supposed to unlock more in an attacking sense but our players… Read more »
We are not in crisis, but Arteta’s stubbornness really has become a bit much. I didn’t take any great issue with the summer moves at the time, but you can’t keep a 17 year old as your backup if you aren’t prepared to let him be the backup. I hope this bias towards defense and set pieces is something the manager is uncomfortable with. I don’t want the beautiful failures of late-Wenger back, but I have never wanted to win that way.
Funnily enough, just had a thought about this:
Is it any worse for Ethan to start and have a so/so game than it is to bring him on 1-0 down and expect him to get us back into the game? I cannot imagine how the latter is better for his development.
Yeah, I agree. There are serious “Just before ESR saved Arteta’s job” vibes at the moment – makes me curious how Arteta reflects back on that time.
Well, maybe that’s what EW could have done if given the chance.
His reticence to try something different is so frustrating. I’m not Arteta out too, but his lack of tactical fluidity and his rewarding of terrible performances make you wonder.
I had the same thought as Mikel stated here during the game: we finally look like ourselves here tonight. I don’t care what people say about our forwards, if we play like this we will win, and we will win a lot. I don’t know where this was in recent games, oddly enough Liverpool aside where I thought we were also very good in the first half. We have to be able to put this type of showing together over 90 minutes though, not just one half. Some under the hood stuff I noticed: — Merino’s fit in the group… Read more »