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Vermaelen - We must not dwell on defeat

Thomas Vermaelen

Thomas Vermaelen insists his Arsenal team must not dwell on their FA Cup exit at the hands of Blackburn Rovers.

The Gunners were expected to progress through to the quarter-finals against the Championship club, but were beaten 1-0 at Emirates Stadium on Saturday.

While Vermaelen was disappointed with the result, he says the side must keep their spirits up ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League clash against Bayern Munich.

 “It's obviously a big disappointment,” he told Arsenal Player. “We controlled the whole game and most of the chances were for us. It is quite a surprise that we lost 1-0.

“They defended well, and had a bit of luck. If we look at ourselves, the tempo could have been higher at times, we had too many touches on the ball and it was difficult to get through [Blackburn’s defence].

“We should have beaten them if you look at the team we brought on to the pitch. But at the end of the day it is the FA Cup, there are always surprises and it happened again here.

“Tuesday night is a totally different game; different league, different opponents, so we have to focus again after this disappointment.

"We need to get good spirit in the team again, make sure we focus and maybe think about the game [against Blackburn] - but not too much. We have to focus on Bayern Munich.”

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