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Mikel Arteta admits what went wrong for Arsenal in their loss to Man City.
Mikel Arteta has acknowledged that Arsenal’s defensive overconfidence contributed to their loss to Manchester City on Wednesday night in the Premier League.
Takehiro Tomiyasu and Gabriel Magalhaes both missed passes in their own defensive third, and as a result, Arsenal lost to City 3-1. City took advantage of both of these errors to score two of their three goals on the night.
When asked on Prime Video if overplaying in and around their own penalty area cost Arsenal in the top-of-the-table clash, manager Arteta replied:
“In certain areas of the pitch, especially after regaining the ball deep, yes. You don’t play there, you have to play a different game and we didn’t read those situations well enough.”
Arteta bemoaned his team’s lost opportunities throughout the game, particularly in the first period when the Gunners dominated play.
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“We’re disappointed because, in the end, we lost it. And I see we because we lost it,” he said.
“I think it was an incredible battle between two teams and when we had them – and we had them – we just gave them the goals. We absolutely gave them the goals. And against this team they’re going to destroy you [for doing that] and they did.
“On the other hand we had three big, big chances and we didn’t put them away and that was the difference.
“To beat them we have to be above our level because they are such a good team who have the quality that they have. We absolutely matched them and we had them in big moments but the games are defined with individual moments, especially in the box, and they were better than us there.”
Due to the loss, Arsenal now sits behind Manchester City in the Premier League standings on goal differential. The Gunners will find some comfort in the knowledge that they still have a game left, though.