All Arsenal fans were shaking their heads after watching an amazing capitulation by the team last night, but how do you think our captain is feeling! He was brought off the field with a hamstring injury with half an hour of the game remaining, but with a 3-1 lead he must have felt he had done enough to ensure the full three points.
Interviewed after the game, Arteta was very angry and at a total loss to understand how it happened. “I don’t know.” he said. “We cannot afford to make that many mistakes and to concede three goals after we went 3-0 up. It’s just not good enough. I’m very disappointed – we missed a great opportunity to finish the job today. It’s not good.”
Does he have any idea of what caused the collapse? Errr….no! “I don’t know. Even with the first goal, you have a two-goal lead at home and we know what we’re playing for. It was a massive day for us to finalise the group stages, and we need to analyse the mistakes and what happened in the second half, because it’s not at the level required at this club.”
Arsenal would have qualified for the knock out places with a win, but the draw now means they have little chance of finishing top of the Champions League Group. Arteta exclaimed: “As well! That’s the main aim when you start the competition. We’ve thrown everything away today. We have another two chances still, but you can’t miss your chances in the Champions League, because every team has qualities and you can see what happened today.”
Our captain has every right to be angry, and Arsene Wenger even said that the team was weaker after Arteta left the field. And now he is off to the treatment room so he won’t be available to help for a while….