Arteta: 'Arsenal gave Man City all 3 goals'
"I'm very disappointed," Arteta said after the game. "You have to play at a high level to have a chance of winning against Man City. I think Arsenal did that on many occasions and scored the equalizer. But we gave the opponent all three goals. You can't play. play like that against Man City. 99 out of 100 games like that, you're going to lose. We couldn't take advantage of three obvious opportunities. When that happens, winning is impossible."
At the Emirates Stadium yesterday, Arsenal played not bad but had to pay the price because of mistakes in the defense. 24 minutes, when Jack Grealish put pressure from behind, Tomiyasu Takehiro passed lightly. Kevin de Bruyne took the opportunity to finish one-touch over the head of goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, opening the scoring for Man City.
Arsenal's defense made the same mistake in the 72nd minute, when midfielder Gabriel made a mistake and let Bernardo Silva win the ball. After that, the ball went through the feet of Erling Haaland, Ilkay Gundogan and then Jack Grealish placed his heart in the far corner, touching Tomiyasu's feet to change direction, making Ramsdale unable to react.
In the 82nd minute, it was the turn of rookie Leandro Trossard to lose the ball at home, helping the visitors to get on the ball quickly. In the decisive situation, Haaland caught the ball a bit far, but was not approached by any Arsenal player, and he was able to reach his right foot and cross the corner to make the score 3-1 for Man City.
"I don't know if the errors of the players come from experience or bad luck," added Arteta. "I've never seen Tomiyasu pass back like that in seven years, and he did it today. It's part of the game and Man City has more than enough quality to punish you."
When asked how the deployment from home cost Arsenal with errors, the Spaniard replied: "Errors happen as part of the risks we take. We don't understand well what we have to do. what to do, especially in the second half, when City changed their formation and played with a different system. But we also created big problems for them. So there is always a balance."
The defeat at home made Arsenal lose the top of the Premier League table to Man City for the first time since the third round. However, "Gunners" still have the right to self-determine the championship by playing one match less than the opponent. In the next two rounds, Arsenal were a guest of Aston Villa on February 18, then marched to Leicester's field on February 25.
"There's still a marathon for the teams," Arteta added of the championship race. "I said it three months ago and I said it today, that the most important thing is how we feel tomorrow. We want to improve efficiency in the box and get more points. The rest, we don't know what will happen."
Arteta also thinks Jorginho plays well and denies that the lack of Thomas Partey affects Arsenal's play. Before the ball rolled, the Ghana midfielder injured his back and could not play. Arteta said Partey needs to undergo tests to determine the extent of the injury.
