Arteta praises his boys and so he should!
Although it is never nice to lose, I do believe that our boys can come away from the Leicester game with their heads held high.
It was a goodish performance from the boys that deserved more than what the game gave them. If we deserved to lose, I would be the first person to say as much, but I don’t feel we did deserve to lose, we were just unlucky with the lack of finishing.
It seems as though Arteta mirrors this as well and speaking to the Arsenal website after the game he said:
“To be fair I was really pleased with the first half, the way we pressed, the aggression we showed against a team that are very capable of breaking that pressure and creating chances against you. We were very effective against that, we were on top of the game, we restricted to nothing, we had the right opportunities to attack good space and create some chances. We scored a goal as well on a set piece, I don’t know how it was disallowed. Then after that in the second half against a really low block you have to be patient and not make any error because this is what they are waiting for: they just need a moment to catch you on the break or with some space and we made the decision when there is no pressure on the ball to try to attack that space and they scored a good goal. After it was difficult in the last 15 minutes, even with three strikers on the pitch we didn’t manage to have enough continuity in our play and we gave too many free kicks away, we didn’t put the ball as often as we could in the box. But credit to them for what they have done but I think it is a very harsh result for us considering what happened in the game.”
Yes the loss is a tough one to take because we performed better and deserved to win or at least get something out of the game, but it is not the end of the world and I am sure Arteta will take out the positives and move it into the next games we have, as well as analyse where we could improve.
Do you think it was a harsh result?
Shenel Osman