Gatting - What we need to learn

By Lloyd Webb

Steve Gatting says Arsenal Under-21s need to learn from their mistakes.

The Gunners conceded a late goal in their 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa on Monday for their second loss of the season.

Gatting says his side need to stay focused until the final whistle but has generally been impressed with their form this year.

“Our goals are to play well as a team and individually,” he told Arsenal Player. “We will see at the end of the season where that takes us. I have to say our goal is to develop the boys rather than win the league. It is nice to win it but we want players to get through to the first team.

“If we play well the result looks after itself. In the last three or four games we have given goals away by poor decision-making but overall, in the first half of the season, the boys have been terrific.

"It is disappointing because we equalised late on and looked like the team that was going to win - then out the blue there was a poor piece of defending, a little mistake and we lost the game.

“The second half I thought we were a little ill-disciplined. Our passing became slow, we looked like we had a loss of ideas to score goals and then made some poor decisions at the back to concede for a second time.

“When you do you get tired, the brain does work slower. You take more risks and make bad decisions sometimes. That is something we need to learn. They are young, they do make mistakes and young boys can be inconsistent but we have to develop them for the future.”