Mikel Arteta spoke to Sky Sports after Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Liverpool at Anfield today.
What did you make of that?
Wow. A very intense game. I think we started brilliantly, we controlled the game, scored the first goal. Managed to continue to play the way we wanted, scored the second goal with a beautiful action and the game was under control.
And after that, we conceded a sloppy goal just before half-time and the game shifted momentum. We had to reset at half-time, I think we started well the first few minutes but after we lost control. We lost far too many simple balls, we didn’t finish any actions, and it then became a very transitional game with lots of open spaces which they love, and very chaotic.
Liverpool missed a penalty, they could have scored three or four, Aaron made some great saves, and it’s true that we had three or four breaks where we could have scored, we didn’t so maybe in the end the result was fair.
Did the momentum change with the Xhaka/Trent incident?
That can happen, but it can happen because they scored a goal as well and it gives them momentum. It is what it is. The lesson is in the first 35-40 minutes from how the team played and that we are capable to come to grounds like this and do what we’ve done.
After, we have to keep doing that regardless of the crowd, regardless of results, and go and look for a third or fourth goal.
Does the crowd being up make it more difficult?
Yeah, but I haven’t seen anybody do it here this season. They’ve beaten all the big teams, Real Madrid it could have been four after 20 minutes, so it’s extremely difficult. You need to understand where you are, against a team where what they’ve done in the last 6 years is no accident. They’re going to have moments, you have deal with them, and our goalkeeper played a big part – but we don’t want to rely on that for sure.
Is it an understatement to say Ramsdale played a big part?
No, that’s the reality. A lot of players play a big part because they score some great goals, and we could have scored another three. Easily.
Can you separate points dropped from point gained?
You can’t, you have to assess the performance throughout the 90 minutes, and in the context that you play at Anfield against this team. We could have taken all three points, we should have done that for another 10/15 minutes and the game would have taken a different trajectory. But now we take the point and see where we go.
The title race?
Move on. Convince them to play the way they did in the first 35 minutes and we’ll win a lot of games.
The lesson is not on the second half, we don’t want to rely on resilience, we want to rely on what we did in the first half.
The question should have been: Did the momentum change when Paul Tierney ‘officiated’ the game?
Any idea what he was even doing there today? Usually the Premier League sends out one of Anthony Taylor/Michael Oliver to officiate a big match, as they’re the only half decent officials in the whole division, and don’t get completely swallowed by the occasion. No coincidence that the bulk of the controversial VAR/refereeing nonsense hasn’t really happened in the big head to head clashes this season (games like Arsenal v Brentford or Spurs vs Brighton are the obvious stand-outs). So how Tierney snuck in rather than spending his afternoon officiating the Leeds vs Palace game earlier on is anybody’s guess.
That last minute absolutely finished me! After a pretty horrible second half, so nearly a perfect ending. Neville/Carragher freaking out at the Ramsdale saves at one end, then Neville shouting “it’s Michael Thomas at Anfield!” as Martinelli raced up the pitch. Most painful moment of the season for me. Not necessarily for any wider influence on the title race, but just for the sheer beauty of what could have been!
imagine if we scored in that last 3v2! what a game. you can’t be happy about the result today, but these are the type of matches that we watch football for. you tell me one year ago that we’d be upset for not winning at anfield and i’d been laughing. very enjoyable football match for neutrals but yes, almost sent me to the hospital!
We were all screaming when Martinelli had the ball
Well said. This is the toughest league to win in the world. Our opponents have spent billions building their squads too with financial doping, which makes it even harder. We’re still in it though and this team Arteta has built will fight til the very end. That’s all we can ask for really.
I really wish we could have those 2 points back from the Brentford match.
but, but, we got an apology from howard webb to put in the trophy cabinet if we come second! (and even then its more than spurs have won in 20 odd years)
To be frank, we were not good enough in that game overall. The points I would really want back are the ones from United away. We were by far the better team and were robbed by some really ridiculous VAR application.
“we don’t want to rely on resilience, we want to rely on what we did in the first half.” love that. playing the way we played in the 2nd half (which is the way Arsenal have often been against the top 2-3 teams in the last decade or so) is leaving things to chance, no matter how resilient you are. We could’ve won this game by chance but we were more likely to lose it and were lucky to escape with a draw. This wasn’t the Arsenal I’ve gotten accustomed to seeing this season, I know we can do better… Read more »
second half was pure emery
today’s lessons need to be learned and absorbed by the coaching staff- the players put in a shift but were let down by arteta’s negative approach in the second half and the lack of adjustment to liverpool’s increased intensity.
And if Martinelli’s through ball at the death finds Saka, we would have won this game and you wouldn’t have posted this tripe.
Fine margins, mate. Fine margins.
Rich response from the likes of you mate
You should think of moving from negative town, it truly is an awful place.
Arteta has to get rid of his Tierney phobia
It’s hard to think of any logical reason why he has preferred to sub Z with a right back instead of KT and only brought KT back (usually for the last five minutes or less) after Tomiyasu was injured. It’s hurting Arsenal having to play a back 3 instead of 4 because Arteta’s preferred LB is a midfielder who wonders all over the pitch and it must be exhausting (and annoying) for Gabi to have to do a lot of Z’s supposed job every game. The KT thing is a puzzle but the one thing I’m certain of is that… Read more »
They were subdued until the Xhaka of previous seasons lost his head and that fired them up. We also should have gone for their throat as they were all over the place until the above. As for the lost points in the other games mentioned we need to use that as motivation. Still in our hands
Xhaka also got the man marking Martinelli a yellow out of it – could have also been seen to go in our favor. Like blogs has said – the goal brought the crowd back into it.
Take it game by game, currently we are six points clear… Scum city will reduce that to three when they beat Leicester!!! We will have then played the same amount of games but, before we go to the oil slick, we have games against westham and Southampton – IF we win those we are nine points clear, so more pressure on city even if they have two games in hand!!! Hate to say it though, we really need a draw at their ground minimum!!!