Rob Holding admitted that Mikel Arteta shouted at the Arsenal team at half-time during the West Ham clash, but was the team already on course for victory?
The Gunners allowed the Hammers very little opportunities in the first-half, with them eventually levelling the tie from a half-chance when
Jarrod Bowen somehow snuck his effort beyond Gabriel Magalhaes and Aaron Ramsdale.
The timing definitely came as a blow, just six minutes after we had taken the lead through Rob Holding’s header, and it assured that the two sides went into the break level.
The defender has now admitted that he and his team-mates were shouted at during the break when speaking to Arsenal Media.
“Yeah, we were a bit disappointed to concede that coming in just before half time,” Holding said.
“It would have been nice to go in one-nil, but he gave us all a shouting and telling off and we came out and looked more like a team and played how he wanted to play.”
While we weren’t leading at the break, we were pretty solid in the opening half in limiting our rivals to very little, and I couldn’t help but feel that we would get our chances as the game went on.
The boss obviously couldn’t contain himself after seeing his side concede late in the initial 45 minutes, and moved to reprimand his players in the dressing room, and the team did seem to improve after the break. The goal definitely will have helped to settle our nerves and allow us to take control, moving to play more on the counter after we had that lead.
Do you believe the ‘telling off’ made all the difference at the break or do you feel like the game was always going to end up the same way?
Patrick
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