Kerr on defeat, Man City and new players

Shelley Kerr had the following to say after Arsenal Ladies' disappointing defeat to Manchester City at Meadow Park on Sunday. 

on the game…
I said at the start of the season that all the teams would be capable of beating one another and it just proves it again today. I thought that we played some good football at times. We just couldn't get a goal, in a nutshell. It's pretty basic really, they scored we didn't.

on the second half performance...
It was much better from us in the second half. We were a bit quicker in everything that we did which helped, and we were quite dominant in the second half but you need to get goals in a game. It was the same on Thursday night, we had 80 or 90 per cent of the possession but that doesn't win you games and right now the disappointing thing is we've came from two games against Birmingham and Chelsea, FA Cup ties, and it's almost like there's a little bit of a hangover there. I can't fault the players for the quality they tried to produce, it just sometimes doesn't come off. It's about having to make the right decisions at the right time because football is all about small margins and you saw that today. Man City had them and we didn't.

on the new players bedding in...
Fine, absolutely fine. I think they're getting there. You can see evidence in terms of the way we try to play the game, I don't think anyone can criticise us for trying to play football, that's what we're trying to do. But unfortunately you need to win games. Even draws in a league that's only got eight teams is very difficult so we're disappointed but I think the new players have gelled quite well.

on a sense of unknown towards City...
Absolutely not, you get access to all the games so we've seen all their games so far so it's not really the unknown. The players are well drilled, well prepared and know exactly what to expect but if only football was that easy.

on the positives from the game...
Echoing what I've said, we played some good football at times. In the second half you could see the speed and tempo of the game was pretty good and we must do that for longer durations in the game. I said to them today they would need to be efficient with and without the ball because of the conditions and we need to do it at the right times for longer periods so we're consistent. I think as well it's important for us that we try and get a goal early because a goal does wonders. It gives you more speed and more confidence, you run quicker, you can run longer and so far in the games we haven't managed that and it's difficult. It puts more pressure on the players out there.

on creating chances…
We need to be more clinical and more creative in the final third without a shadow of a doubt. I sometimes think that we play too much football in the wrong areas. That includes our own defensive third and the attacking third and it's decision making. I felt that we didn't have enough movement in the first half. We changed that in the second half and we did better but it was the same on Thursday night as well, everything was from around 20 yards out but we've got enough quality in our team to be doing better.

on responding against Birmingham...
We're disappointed, I'm disappointed today because we're dominating games in terms of possession but you need to make it count because there's no margin for error and this club has built the foundations of success. It's not about winning things but it is about creating a positive environment and trying to make sure you're dominating games, but get something out of them. There's no point in dominating games if you don't get something out of it.