The Arsenal boss speaks about the 1-1 draw

Here are some quotes from Mikel Arteta during his post-match press conference…

“I was pleased with how we started the game, with the way we dominated the first half. We saw things that we’d worked on in training and the way they executed them was good. But obviously after the break we knew they were going to push, they had more bodies forward, they put us under pressure more. We started to give bad free-kicks away and that’s something that we have to avoid. Then we switched off for the goal. We completely switched off and allowed them to put the cross in. We turned and conceded the deflection, and I was very disappointed with that. After that, I must say that we reacted really well again after conceding the goal. After Auba’s red card, we reacted even better in my opinion.”

“That’s what I wanted to see from my team with 10 men. The reaction was really, really positive and they wanted to win the game. They went for it and we had three or four really good situations. We created the best chance with Nico and Laca. We were unlucky not to win the game.”

Losing Aubameyang for 3 games, “That’s a massive blow. We know how important Auba is for the team. Maybe we’re going to lose him for a couple of games. I just watched it and it looked nasty, to be fair. Knowing Auba, there’s no intention to make such a tackle. Hopefully, he hasn’t been injured and we are sorry for that. The decision was made and we have to accept it.”

“At this level in the Premier League, if you switch off for two seconds, five seconds, you will concede a goal straight away. I’m going to have to find a way to try to avoid those situations. It happened today and it cost us two points. The way we conceded that goal just killed me. It’s not what I want.”

Overall, the boss seemed fairly pleased with his team’s performance today.