Mikel Arteta was left to lament his side’s lack of cutting edge as Arsenal slumped to a 1-0 defeat at Manchester City on Saturday, their 29th consecutive Premier League match without a win. was away from the ‘big six’.
Bokaio Saka and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had the potential for a tight contest, but the contest was decided by Raheem Sterling’s first-half strike.
Speaking after the match, Arteta discussed an array of issues that have now seen his side pick up nine points from their opening five league matches of the 2020/21 season.
Arsenal have won three of five games this season /Michael Regan/Getty Images
While the 1-0 scoreline shows a vast improvement since the club’s recent trip to face City, the end result was the same. After having chances in the match, Arteta claimed he was proud of the performance, but was disappointed to see his side play so poorly.
He said via Football.London: “Obviously upset not to get something out of this game because I felt we kept growing and growing and more and more confident that we could really get something out of it. are.”
“At the same time, I’m extremely proud of the way we played individually and collectively to put on the performance that we put on in this stadium tonight. That’s not an easy thing to do. I think we had a real go.
“It’s frustrating to see your team so deep. In the second half we were really aggressive, we played in the opponents’ half, they had a lot of problems getting out of our pressure. I think, we Could have created more.The last third
The party got its start as a late sub/Pool/Getty Images.
Much of the pre-match talk focused on whether deadline day signing Thomas Partey would jump straight into Arteta’s starting line-up, but the Spaniard added £45m to the bench for the Etihad showdown. Chose to keep. On the subject, Arteta insisted it was too early to get the Ghanaian into action.
“We’ll see how quickly we can do it with him but at the same time we’ve got to respect the process and the time he’s had because he’s had a real day of training with us,” he said.
“It’s a lot of new information, it’s a whole different game model for him to understand. We’ve got to respect him a little bit. He looked good when he came in.”
Walker could have been punished / Don’t – Dean House/Getty Images
It looked as if the Gunners would be handed a lifeline late in the first half, as Kyle Walker’s high foot came within inches of connecting with Gabriel Magalhaes’ header in the penalty box. Awaiting a VAR review, referee Chris Kavanagh elected to blow the half-time second-late whistle, indicating that there had been no second look.
“You need everything to go your way to win here and obviously when you have three or four big chances you have to put them away because you know you’re in the box. That’s how it will be.” Arteta concluded.
“That’s the situation, I’ve watched it back, I just ask the referees to watch it back and I don’t think they’ve checked it because it took two seconds for the whistle to go.
“I’m disappointed in him.”