Michael Owen says Arsenal has improved and was unlucky to lose 2-1 to Manchester City this afternoon.
The Gunners gave the Premier League leaders a proper fight in the fixture before eventually losing the match, no thanks to some poor decision making by Granit Xhaka and Gabriel Magalhaes.
Fans would have been impressed by the overall performance of the team, especially in the first half, and Owen liked what he saw.
After the game, the former Liverpool and Real Madrid striker praised the Gunners for the progress they have made and said there were unlucky to be the losing side.
He tweeted: “Huge progress from Arsenal lately. So unlucky not to get anything out of the game. Couple of tough decisions to take and a couple of silly mistakes they need to learn from.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Arsenal showed a lot of character in this match and it has been a while since they have done this well against a top opponent, despite the defeat.
If we perform this well against lesser opponents, we can end this season as high as possible on the league table.
Hopefully, the team will learn from the silly mistakes it made on the pitch today and do better in future games.
This reminds me of the days Arsenal used to play Barcelona under Guardiola and we always get robbed. The person in charge of VAR should be investigated as well. We had a penalty earlier but he refused to tell the referee to check the monitor. #SayNoToMatchFixing
Yes i concord. The referee and VAR man should be investigated for match fixing.
“Tough decisions” or “predudiced decisions”. Scam.
However heartbreaking and unlucky- as in ROBBED- that we were, the broader picture after this magnificent performance and better than most Gooners expected if they were to be totally honest, shows how much better we now are than almost any Gooner much have realised. We competed with and should have beaten probably the very best club side in the world, but for the ref and VAR.
Yes, two of our players showed their frailties in the heat of battle but we all know in our hearts this was the best perf by a very long way under MA and probably under Emery too.
We have shown we can play at this level and we will not meet City again this season (unless in the FA CUP). There is no longer a single PREM team we need fear this season and we can and probably will now go on a long unbeaten run in the next four months in the Prem.
I predict a fourth place finish and even possibly higher, if CHELSEA CONTINUE TO SLIP UP. We must now have a very serious chance in the Carabao Cup too.
Our remaining fixtures overall are now less difficult than both Spuds and United, which is a key point to consider.
One of our players makes stupid mistakes over and over but still is selected.
We have played the “big four” five times now and have lost all five.
Explain how you see that we can play at that level please.
We have made improvements but only against teams that we are expected to beat – progress should be beating the big four.
The same number of points we would get from a big team is what we will get from a lesser team, if we beat any. 3points.
You need me to “explain how I saw us play at that level”? Well, that’s easy.
Simply open your eyes and keep them open. You saw what I saw I assume, yet you still need an explanation it seems As the saying goes, “there is always one”!
Spot on Jon – echoes my sentiments exactly today. Even the optimists amongst us didn’t expect this performance – yes we could see signs but it seemed too soon and this game just too big too early.
Total domination until the ref – already biased before the – decided not just to refuse our pen without even looking at it again. Not just to award them a dubious pen. Not just to book any of our players who so much as looked at him. But also to make the game safe be sending one off. If the decisions were consistently bad but went both ways we could live with it. But every single wrong decision went in their favour. I get that pundits and managers are not allowed to mention refs with “agendas” as they risk legal action, but this was truly appalling – the worst since Man Utd were allowed to kick us off the pitch nearly 20 years ago.
Huge performance – play like this we beat every team in the division. Perhaps too far behind for top 3 but cannot see us failing to get 4th.
Bitter-sweet day…
Arsenal played well but were undone by poor mistakes and lack of discipline.
There is much talk about officiating bias or suggested refereeing incompetence. Unfortunately, it appears that several of the players (as well as many fans) have this view which leads to unnecessary yellow cards and a lack of focus. These are aspects where the team demonstrates its inexperience and lack of effective leadership on the pitch.
Whilst some of the key decisions could have gone either way overall in my view the refereeing performance was satisfactory.
Man City will know they got out of jail today, but despite the defeat a weight has been removed from the shoulders of our players, who will at last realise that they can compete with City.Mentally they will take a lot from the match, it’s just a pity Partey will not be available against Spurs as he was excellent today.
Arsenal are much better than I expected….I was hoping we win but wouldn’t bet on it….now I would……..we can beat all the teams below us…just need to be consistent……
Partey came to the party today just so bad that AFCON is here when we so need him
Did u all see how they were celebrating like they won a final
Still pretty pissed off with referee siding more to mc side. From the start the match was decided who is going to be won!!
Franko,in a cl match rvp was sent off for an insignificant offence:shooting the ball away.With that offensive threat removed,Arsenal lost the match,not surprising.
I believe theres a deliberate campaign to stop Arsenal winning against the top teams.
Thats why when Arsenal play its against
14 players .How can Arsenal ever win the epl?
Please teme
So depressing to see Arsenal been robbed,
Arteta would probably bench Xhaka ASAP he gets a good replacement.