After we suffered just our second league defeat of the season against Aston Villa, Mikel Arteta fielded questions from the media at Villa Park.
The boss was asked about not being on the touchline, key refereeing decisions, fixture congestion, as well as much more.
Here is everything he had to say:
on the result:
I'm very disappointed with the result, especially with the way we played, I think we deserved much more than what we had, I thought we were the better team, I haven’t seen a team do what we did to Villa today since we were here in February. It wasn’t enough to win it because we lacked the accuracy in the opponent's box to put the ball in the back of the net with the amount of situations that we generated.
on the Douglas Luiz challenge and the VAR decision at the end:
Clear and obvious. Clear and obvious. That’s what I mean.
on the threshold of the rule:
That’s my opinion, that’s all I can say.
on dominating the game:
We had so many big opportunities, some of them we didn’t even finish when they were completely open. We had to pick the right player to shoot and when we did it two or three times it was an open goal almost and we didn’t manage to score, but there’s not much more that we can demand from the team to play every three days. To play the way they’ve done, I am really pleased, but disappointed because in the end we didn’t have the result that we wanted.
on taking Gabriel Martinelli off in the second half:
It was because we started to attack in a way that wasn’t too much from his side. We started to rush decisions, play the ball in behind too early, and from areas where you aren’t going to hurt them and you get exposed afterwards. I think it was enough to get much more than what we had.
on fatigue towards the end:
A team that is fatigued doesn’t play against Aston Villa in the way we have played, with the energy, commitment and quality that we have done. I don’t think that’s the case.
on having to watch the game from the stands:
It was what it was, I tried to adapt, I think the boys did really well to try to communicate everything that we wanted and the team had a good performance.
on Aston Villa being contenders for the title:
Anybody that can win a lot of games in a row will be in the hands of each of us to merit to win every single week to be up there, but certainly they are right now.
on how we can avoid missed chances:
I think it was a bit windy today, you see a lot of misplaced balls, having the right touch, having the right accuracy in certain passes. I don’t know but for sure I have responsibility. I have to take it,.
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