Mikel Arteta admits he was disappointed to see Arsenal crash out of the Carabao Cup but he couldn’t fault the effort of his much-rotated lineup as Brighton ran out 3-1 winners at Emirates Stadium.
In his post-game press conference, the boss fielded questions about squad depth, the mistake that shaped rookie keeper Karl Hein’s debut and the form of Fabio Vieira who has looked out of sorts in recent weeks.
On the performance…
They were much more efficient than us and that made the whole difference. The moment that we were clearly on top of the game and we had the chances to get away with the game, we conceded the goal and that changed the game.
On being disappointed in defeat…
Losing is [disappointing] but the way the boys tried and played with the amount of changes we have to make because of the congestion, and we have to protect the players and give players chances, I’m really happy with that. Obviously, we wanted to continue in the competition and unfortunately, we are out.
On why Karl Hein made his debut…
I think he deserved the chance, he’s the first goalkeeper of his national team and at his age, that’s something that’s not usual. He totally deserves his chance and if I have to play him tomorrow again, I’d play him again because experience you get from playing football matches. Errors are part of football.
On needing to strengthen in January…
That’s the squad that we have and we have to try to utilise the squad in the best possible way. Today we came up short, especially because we didn’t do what we have to do in both boxes to win a football matches and we paid a price.
On having the depth to challenge for big trophies this season…
We know where we are and we knew the moment we had certain injuries that the squad is already very, very short. We have tried to manage that in the best possible situation. But it’s the same when we win a football match, no excuses.
On if he’s said anything to Hein…
No, everybody was supporting him. Everybody was supporting him straight after [his mistake], we all make mistakes, me the first one, the players all the time because they are part of the game. He needs to carry on, when you make an error it’s about how you react, it’s not about the error. This is going to happen in his career and it happened today, unfortunately.
On building units within the team and how he develops them…
It’s all kinds of thing, the relationships on the pitch, the chemistry and understanding is really important and every training session, everything that we do is related to that.
On whether some players feature in different units…
Yeah, there are players that play different roles and can accommodate two different spaces, that’s something that is very positive.
On Fabio Vieira struggling in recent games…
I think in front of goal he’s been a little bit unlucky because in the last few games he could have scored a few goals. Every player needs time to adapt and to play against Brentford away from home, he was surrounded by players he’s more familiar with, and it was a little bit easier. We have asked him to play in different positions as well because of the needs that we have in the squad. I’m not worried at all.
On if he’s settled…
Well, he’s missed a big part [of pre-season] because he was injured for two and a half months. He’s missed a whole pre-season, didn’t have any pre-season and I think that period now in the World Cup is going to make him very good.
On how Gabriel Magalhaes reacted to missing out on Brazil’s World Cup squad…
The whole squad has been very supportive of him, I think Gabi had that option [missing out] in his mind, he knew it wasn’t easy to get selected with the squad that they have. He was obviously hoping for it but he accepted the decision in a really good way.
On whether he needs to recruit in January…
It’s the same squad when we win, we’ve always said, I’ve said it from day one, that we have a short squad. At the end we had players leave and it’s what we have. If everybody is available and can play minutes, we are okay but the moment that we have injuries, we know what it is. It’s nothing new, I said it the first day after the transfer window.
On plans for January…
That’s a window that is open and we’ll have to discuss the options that we have, the capacity that we have to make those changes and be on the market for any opportunities. As well, we don’t know what’s going to happen in the last game of the World Cup, it’s a lot of options that are open.
Given how stretched the team is, it’s the loss we had to have.
Yep don’t think anyone’s complaining about being out. B team is lacking though, need some reinforcements in January for sure. Silver lining is Nelson is beginning to look like a decent player, there’s nothing better than one of your graduates making it, let’s hope he keeps his head down and continues grafting!
They DeZerbi’d to win.
I’m here all week, folks. Try the seal.
Meh-rabao cup
It might as well be named that – heaven knows it’s been called everything else.
The Milk Cup, the Littlewoods Cup (although to be fair that was at least a different trophy, albeit the same competition) the Rumbelows Cup, the Coca-Cola Cup, the Worthington Cup, the Carling Cup and – now – the Stupid Energy Drink Cup.
At least, in spite of grubby corporate sponsorship, people still refer to the FA Cup as the FA Cup……
I don’t know but he sounded like being out is planned 😃
We have a great first team and a really sh*t second team. Brighton played their second team too. Some of the players that played tonight are simply not good enough to be a backup to the first team. I know lots of fans are happy we our out which I don’t get. We should go into every game no matter Pre-Season or Champions League and win. Let’s hope the first team puts on a good performance against wolves and we go to the world Cup top of the league.
Yeah it’s fine can’t be arsed about this cup. Impor5antly no first teasers got injured.
TEAMERS
Not worried about the 5 then?
You tease!
Is it really that imporfiveant? Now I’m teasing!
I’m not too bothered by this. Let City have their customary Cup and we’ll take the big one this time.
Priorities matter save your energy boys well done
Save our energy?????? We made 10 changes. Those guys who started yesterday have no reason to save energy and should have given Arteta a reason to pick them in the first team. These are the games that we can experiment and give our academy players a chance to play.
Disappointing defeat but we can’t let that affect our main agenda for the season which is top four and a maybe a sprinkling of winning the PL.
Whenever I complain about Fabio viera I’m smothered with downvotes….we don’t have a deputy for Odegaard at the moment…..
Give him time….
Got ESR back soon as well
Patience mate. He’ll get there.
Still finding his feet at a massive club in the biggest league in world football.
Give him some time, there’s an incredible talent there.
Not the end of the world by a long stretch. We have far bigger fish to fry and a larger squad to build first.
Once our second string have that extra strength and quality – and numbers – then I’m sure we’ll go further in this competition.
As it is, the first team squad need bolstering and we’re top of the table both at home and in Europe. Still work to do, but a great platform to continue building from.
Onwards and upwards to Saturday’s visit to Wolves.
COYG 😊👍
It was certainly a disappointing result. While it wasn’t the end of the world of course, yesterday’s game was one that a leading team like Arsenal should really expect to win, even with many team changes (as Brighton had as well) but we lost pretty badly. The reason seems clear to me – we just don’t have the strength in depth across the squad. Unless Arteta commits to playing the majority, sometimes the overwhelming majority as in the recent Zurich game, of our first-choice players at some time during games like these, we cannot be reasonably sure of a positive… Read more »
It’s a little disappointing to be out already. Nelson and Nketiah did enough to suggest they can be useful but it highlighted a lack of ready made competition in other key areas. A keeper and a midfielder look like necessary areas to focus on in transfer windows.
Despite the negative vote, you’re obviously right. We just don’t manage well when the majority of the first-choice players are absent in these types of games. Arteta used eight at some stage against Zurich recently and we got the (albeit narrow) win. I think four were used at some stage yesterday. For me, that underlines your point about lack of real depth in key positions.
I agree with all of that minus the Keeper requirement…people also need to relax with the viera criticism as well. The kid hasn’t had that much time to settle in yet tbf and esr should be good to go post wc. I want to believe in Sambi but he needs to show us something. We aren’t that far from having solid backup in all positions in my opinion, people are just so doom and gloom right away and hammer the shit out of this one topic/viewpoint of lacking depth. That’s usually the last hurdle for any team aspiring on the… Read more »