Arsenal have failed to win both matches in their trip to Scotland this week, but manager Mikel Arteta is happy with what he has seen from his players.
The Gunners travelled north on Monday, with their opening friendly against Hibernian the following day, before taking on Rangers in today’s 2-2 stalemate.
The manager insists that he is happy with the time spent in Scotland however, ending their time there with a draw against his former side as a player, and he claims to be pleased with the way his current side performed.
“Overall I’m really pleased with the performance,” he said after the final whistle(via Football.London). “I think we dominated the game, we created so many chances – I counted about eight or 10 clear chances to score. But this game is decided in both boxes.
“We weren’t clinical in the opponent’s box and we conceded two goals from two corners, which were the only chances they had apart from the counter-attack from our own corner.
“So much better from the other day and you tell that physically we were already better in the second game, the organisation was better, individually they played better, but I really liked the collective understanding of the game and how we executed a lot of things we’ve been working on in the training pitch.”
Arteta was then asked how he felt the camp had gone overall, with most of the players having returned to pre-season training just 10 days ago.
“It’s been really good. We created so many chances, but we are not converting enough,” he replied. “Today we should’ve scored many more goals and with the quality of the players we have up front, they have to demand much more of themselves. But at least we are getting there.
“The process is becoming much clearer, much better. I think without the ball as well, we worked really hard and were really efficient. We won a lot of balls in the final third so there are a lot of positives to take.”
I have to agree, mostly we have looked extremely positive and on the front foot, with our finishing seriously letting us down, but that should all come together as our players get their match sharpness and confidence back.
Patrick