Arteta speaking at a press conference

“We were the better team” Mikel Arteta reacts to Arsenal’s draw at Chelsea

Mikel Arteta’s frustration was evident following Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea, a game where the Gunners aimed to rebound from recent setbacks against Newcastle United and Inter Milan. Going into the match, Arsenal knew they needed a win to regain momentum and restore confidence. Yet Chelsea, keen on securing their own place in the top half of the table, put forth a strong effort, making it a tough outing for Arteta’s side.

Despite early pressure from Chelsea, Arsenal managed to take control during significant parts of the game, creating opportunities and dictating play. Arsenal even had a golden chance to secure a win with the final kick, but they were unable to capitalise. Reflecting on the outcome, Arteta was left disappointed, feeling his team had deserved more from their performance.

Speaking to Premier League Productions, Arteta expressed his dissatisfaction, explaining, “The disappointment of not getting three points is bigger [than being satisfied] and it will probably be bigger after watching it back. I think we dominated them, we were the better team in many phases and situations in the game and after going ahead, we are very disappointed in the way we conceded. It was so poor. It is not our standards and we don’t accept it. The reaction of the team was unbelievable.”

Arteta not a happy man

This reaction reflects Arteta’s high expectations for Arsenal’s defensive standards and overall performance. The team’s inability to close out the game has been a recurring issue, and Arteta’s comments indicate his disappointment in conceding a goal from what he considered preventable circumstances. His criticism signals a drive for improvement, particularly as Arsenal faces a demanding set of matches after the international break.

While the draw keeps Arsenal in the title race, Arteta’s frustration highlights the importance of consistency and resilience. The international break offers the team a valuable chance to regroup, address defensive lapses, and improve finishing under pressure. With the league as competitive as ever, Arteta knows that dropping points in key games could have long-term consequences. Arsenal will need to come back with greater determination to solidify their title hopes and consistently deliver high-level performances.


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35 Comments

  1. Ask yourself Arteta WHY a very ordinary team like Liverpool with a rookie prem manager is being allowed to walk away with the prem at the moment. Then you may get your answer to why, you keep rambling about, us being the better team and not winning sooooooooo many times.

      1. Thing is Sue, Pep has previous for sorting it out. I am more positive that City will catch Liverpool than us. I just don’t see a great team Sue.

        1. Liverpool are also in the CL so not exactly ordinary- although I agree Reggie, that they are not exceptional but I think that Slot has been quite smart and so far it’s going well. So far.

          I suggest that many people had us down to lose. I wasn’t more confident than going for a draw. A home fixture for Chelsea who were well rested and resurgent under Marseca against Arsenal who were back to pretty much full fitness, but lower in confidence after a very iffy run.

          Remind me of this post when it goes Pete Tong 😩.

          1. You could also ask. How could a very experienced mamager like Pep that has won it all be letting that EPL rookie at Liverpool run away with the title?

            I remember Arsenal in 2022/23 season starting the season off better than Liverpool. But the likes of this same “Poster” continued to find any little faults to down play Arteta and his team. And when we bottled it at the end of that season the same people were telling everyone to stop going on about the first half of that season as it meant nothing at the end. “We told you so…”.

            But now Liverpool having a very strong start to this season should be used as another talking point from the agenda ridden Arteta doomers (usual suspects). Why not wait to the end of the season before starting to jump on the Liverpool rookie manager’s bandwagon? What if he tanks like all the other managers from different clubs that these same fans suggested were better than Arteta due to the way they started those seasons? But what if the current Liverpool manager later on in the season tanks himself and is sacked like all the others? Would these agenda ridden fans then turn around and apologise or admit that they once again jumped on the bandwagon too soon? Because they never seem to admit they were wrong with all those other managers they have suggested since 2020.

      1. Well me thinks they are but they are playing above their potential and with a rookie prem manager to boot. I would have many of their players over ours.

        1. Salah and van dyke will likely be remembered as two of the best players in their positions in EPL history by the ends of their careers and they have plenty of excellent players besides them. They actually look a very solid squad imo, and I think they needed a new manager to freshen things up. They don’t need to be the greatest team of all time to win the title, if they keep playing consistently at the level they are now, I think they’ll take some stopping because they are able to comfortably win the games they’re supposed to win, and put up a fight and take points against stronger opponents.
          Unlike us and city, they haven’t suffered serious injuries to either of those key players, like we have with odegaard and arguably several others, and city have with Rodri (and de bruyne, who gets forgotten because he’s so often injured anyway but is arguably the league’s top player when fit).

        2. Its funny how you look at other teams and make out a team with their best players past their best and a squad assembled for half of ours as being better than ours. We should no excuses, be above Livin every way. 2 years we finished above them and spent more money. They have a rookie manager and you ignore all of that.🤣🤣🤣

            1. He is in the prem Sue. People on here use the prem as a yardstick to competition in other leagues and say there is no comparison. The prem is far tougher. Well that applies to Rookie Slot. Arteta has had 5 years of slot, not 5 months.

              1. Reggie
                It never occurred to me that every foreign manager who came to their first role in our league was a rookie. That list would have some eminent names on it. Ancelotti, Mourinho, Guardiola to name but a few.

                1. Ok, so the managers you have listed are hardly rookies (but they obviously was to the prem) because they had all won the CL and league before that in Spain and Italy. Slot has only ever managed Dutch clubs and has never won in Europe (i believe) and definitely not the CL. Has he had more league experience than Arteta?

            2. Slot is clearly an excellent manager and he is a relatively young manager. However he is clearly not a rookie manager. The use of this term has been cynically deployed to create further talking points.

        3. David,

          You can’t go around saying things like that because you’ll upset the Arteta loveys, who think that Arsenal have the best squad in the league, bar none.

          And all because they’ve bought into the rubbish that Arteta spouts on about game after game. ie: we were the best team, I’m so proud of the boys, (it brings a tear to your eyes doesn’t it), its the small margins, etc,etc,etc. You get my drift.

          If only they would open there eyes and see what a lot of the more honest fans see. Sad really isn’t it.

          1. Again, an idiotic statent from DEREK. Name me ONE Arsenal fan that thinks our squad is better than Man City’s?
            You constant negative attacks on Arteta is becoming boring and tiring, 15 times just yesterday! I will NOT allow you to hijack every post with your vitriol so I suggest you turn down the hatred and stop making idiotic comments like i mentioned here.

              1. TRUTH, you ask me that after Ive just told you that you posted a total lie!

                If you want to discuss football then stay here, but without telling blatant lies. If you are just going to shout insults on every post, you will drive my readers away, as contrary to your thoughts, MOST Arsenal fans think Arteta has done an excellent job.
                I’m not having that.
                THAT is the truth

                1. Admin Pat,

                  I’m not shouting insults. If I was, I’d be typing in Capital letters.

                  And I’m not lying about some of he fans out there. I’m not saying all of them, because clearly that’s not the case.

                  But don’t tell me that there aren’t any out there, because there clearly are. And there the one’s I’m talking about, which is my right. Like it’s okay for them to have there opinions, but if they are going to have those opinions, then I’m perfectly right to call them out on it.

                  Or are we going all woke here all of the sudden.

  2. We weren’t good enough on the day. Plain and simple. Arteta needs to start worrying about his job. If anyone doubts whether a new manager with bright ideas can make a big impression immediately just take a closer look at Chelsea and Liverpool. Enough said.

    1. RFrancis
      Perhaps Arteta is feeling the heat after a difficult spell. It wasn’t like that at the start of the season when our tricky fixtures brought a strong outcome.
      Don’t you think your remarks are a touch short-termist?

      Slot took over a team in the CL and had a softer start in terms of fixtures. Maresca nearly came a cropper with Leicester in the Championship and has a hugely valuable team at his disposal at Chelsea. Granted they were not firing last season , but I didn’t actually think they were so good yesterday to warrant so much praise.

      My take is that confidence was low at Arsenal but overall a better performance was produced yesterday which can only reduce the pressure on the players and Arteta and then we can see how they respond

  3. People are arguing about how good, or not, Liverpool are. They’re good enough to lead the table at this stage of the season. If their position was reversed with Arsenal’s, you wouldn’t read a squeak of criticism here.

    Rather than scrambling around for excuses about injuries, officials, difficult fixtures or whatever, I think we should admit that Arsenal is where they are currently at least because they’re just not good enough.

    It’s Arteta’s biggest test because the weight of expectation on him now is so great. It’s expectation, but not actual achievement, that saw him awarded a huge new £16m a year contract just a few months ago. That’s why I suspect there’s a nagging worry, even if we don’t admit it or try to deflect it with excuses, that perhaps he may just not be up to it after all. Of course, we’ll only know come May.

    1. Bertie
      The bottom line is Liverpool are playing in the CL so they are not an ordinary team and having finished in the top4 deserve their current position this season

      What you have chosen not to factor in are the injuries and stupid red cards which have clearly altered the trajectory the team was on. We are where we are because we weren’t good enough to deal with those setbacks. Your opinion is that the team isn’t good enough when they are fit. Would City be good enough without their injuries?Isn’t it better to draw that conclusion when all teams have played each other?

      1. But Liverpool has injuries. Their first-choice keeper (generally considered to be one of the best) has been out/is out currently and I think other players have been missing. There is no Arsenal “exceptionalism” regarding injuries.

        As to the “stupid red cards” – Arsenal’s players need to be less stupid in that respect then, don’t they. After all, they’ve already accumulated as many red cards as any title winner in the last decade has across the entire season.

        We agree that Arsenal aren’t good enough currently. While nothing is impossible, I think that it will be difficult for Arsenal now. However, the only accurate conclusion will be on 25 May 2025 when it will be the triumph of expectation over achievement, or the other way around.

        1. You can’t compare the absence of a goalkeeper and Jota( not usually a starter) to the sheer number of injuries we’ve had and to key players. I mean we had to adapt our entire formation just to accommodate the fact.

  4. I see Arteta is coming out with his usual dross. I t creases me up when managers and players alike come out and say we deserved to win.

    No they didn’t, please answer me this question fellow Arsenal fans, say Arsenal had 99 percent of possession, 99 attempts at goal, the opposition goalie has a superb performance, we miss some open goals, we hit the woodwork a few times, and our strikers keep missing the chances.

    The opposition have 1 percent of the possession, they have 1 attempt on goal and score. Tell me who deserves to win the game.

    It baffles me that managers make such a big thing about the amount of possession they have in a game. Its not the possession that you have that counts, its what you do with the possession that counts.

    I believe that a lot of the time these managers are hiding behind the possession stat to make it at least look a bit better for them.

    But they don’t fool me, neither should it fool anyone else either.

  5. We didn’t deserve to win, the scoreline reflects that.

    Possession means little if you don’t do much with it. Back and sideways passing dominate our possession, every attack coming from the wings and precious little through the middle.

    Looking at their goal, Enzo had no pressure dribbling, Neto was not challenged AT ALL, except by Timber who was the LB and came over to defend.

    Havertz stood like a statue and did nothing, no midfielder in the space, and Gabriel did not close him down.

    Very poor situational defending in a key moment and cost us points.

  6. If every chance was defended properly in every game, we would always have a 0-0 scoreline.
    Did chelsea defend the goal Martinelli scored properly?
    Of course they didn’t, otherwise we wouldn’t have scored.
    The old saying that your opponent can’t score if you have the ball, is as relevant today as it was way back then – so possession IS important, it’s what you do with it that counts and I believe that, with a full squad, MA’s squad and tactics are as good as city115 and recent results back me up PAT!!

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