Arsenal’s players have been told they can take pride from their display despite suffering a narrow 2-1 defeat against Manchester City over the weekend. The Gunners entered the contest aiming to secure either victory or at least a valuable point, and they would have been disappointed to leave empty-handed after such a competitive performance.
The match brought together two sides widely regarded as among the strongest teams in Europe at present. Arsenal matched City for long periods and showed resilience, intensity and quality throughout the encounter, underlining why they have been considered genuine contenders this season.
Arsenal Showed Their Quality
A draw may have been viewed by many as a fairer reflection of the balance of play, with both clubs producing moments of quality and demonstrating their high standards. Arsenal created problems for City and remained in contention until the closing stages of the fixture.
City ultimately secured the win, but only after Arsenal pushed hard in search of a late equaliser. Several determined attempts to rescue a result did not come off, yet the visitors continued to battle until the final whistle and never allowed the contest to drift away from them.
Pride Despite Defeat
Even in defeat, Arsenal can be encouraged by the level of their performance. There are occasions in football when a team performs well but fails to gain the reward its efforts deserve, and this appeared to be one of those afternoons for Mikel Arteta’s side.
The display should provide confidence for the remaining matches of the campaign, particularly given the quality of the opposition and the demanding atmosphere away from home. Arsenal showed they are capable of competing with the very best and can still take positives from the result.
Reflecting on the match, Martin Keown said, as quoted by Premier League Production: “I’m sitting here as a proud Arsenal man, I don’t see anybody from an Arsenal perspective heading off this pitch with their heads down. They’ve given a good account of themselves. That could have been very different. I think the fans will be proud of that. It’s certainly not over, there’s plenty of football left in the Premier League.”
Those comments capture the wider feeling that, although Arsenal were beaten, their commitment and quality remain clear for all to see.
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The performance was much better yesterday. We gave it a good go and could have won on another day with a little more luck. There were some individual exceptions but it’s not the time to name names. We all know who they are and how poorly they have performed recently. The biggest issue I have is that we have probably missed an opportunity to finally lift the EPL after 22 years of waiting. City are scoring goals for fun. We’re struggling to hit the back of the net. So, a betting man would know the safer bet. I’m not giving up just yet though and anything can happen with the remaining games. It doesn’t bode well but it may just come down to goal differences? Let’s hope we find some scoring form again and win our remaining games. COYG!!
Just showed how much better we are when playing the high press and with intensity, instead of the tippy-tappy possession based football that often ends with no end product.
In my opinion, we now have a straight 5 game shoot out vs City and goal difference will be the deciding factor.
The teams we play are defensively more fragile than their opponents, so we still need to remain hopeful and go for the jugular from the kick off.
No ifs, no buts. We need high intensity, purposeful, direct football and goals – all within a calm and focused head.
We need to keep going until it mathematically impossible – cos as we all know, anything can happen.
Martin keown consistently the only pundit who actually talks sense. Just happens to me and ex gunner too.
Wonder why he try his hand fully at management