Mikel Arteta spoke to the media following our 2-2 draw with West Ham on Sunday.
Our head coach discussed the team's fast start, giving West Ham belief, missed opportunities, the title race and more.
Read on for a full transcript:
on his thoughts on the game…
We started extremely well again - dominated the game, dominated the pitch and scored two beautiful goals. After that, we made a huge mistake to stop playing with the same purpose to score the third and just think we could play around them and maintain that result. It looked too easy and at that moment we gave them hope and they took it. They did what they did really well - they started to play extremely direct, with long throws and winning corners. We really struggled to get out of that game. If you don’t defend your box the way you should, with the two goals we conceded, you have to do many things much better for longer periods in the match. There was another moment, where you can go 3-1 up after 50 minutes, and the game is probably over… then two minutes later, you concede a goal. But this is part of football. My worry is after 2-0, we made that huge mistake and didn’t understand what the game required in that moment.
on what he puts losing a two-goal lead down to...
It’s easy to do it from outside the pitch. You have to be a player, and feel it there. We have to understand those emotions as well. We needed that ruthless mindset in that moment to go and kill the team. When a team is there for the killing, you have to kill it. Today we haven’t done it. When you don’t do that in the Premier League, at some stage they’re going to turn around and have some momentum. Then you have to defend much better, for example with the second goal. If you don’t, you won’t win the game.
on if he’s concerned at the last two games following similar patterns...
Well the pattern in terms of the result is different. In terms of what’s happened, it was very different. But you have to accept that. That’s the last thing we want in our brains - to not have the confidence after having the possibility to kill the game and not doing it. That’s the next stage. When you are there, you have to do it. You have to play with the same purpose or more and not give them anything.
on if there was a psychological hangover from Anfield when it went to 2-1...
It can happen but again, what goes through every mind is probably different. At half-time we all knew what we had to do and what we had to do better. Credit to West Ham - when they started to play their game. If they are efficient in those first two goals, it is difficult because you have to fight and earn the right to play. But when we did it, especially with the changes, we had to have more composure to finish the game.
on not being able to reverse the mindset of the players…
For sure because we are here to win, when you are able to play at that level, and then you drop your level to here so quickly, the game is there and any opponent are going to be able to do that, so we have to dig deep there and find solutions to that.
on the importance of the last six days in the title race…
I have no idea, I didn’t have an idea seven weeks ago, twelve, for what is going to happen in three weeks, my biggest task is, go again and train really well, and on Friday play at the same level that we played the first 30, 35 minutes against a team that is fighting for their lives, or against a Liverpool team but do it for a longer period and kill it.
on whether the players looked fatigued…
Fatigue wise no, what we produced in the first, and second half against Liverpool was similar and today we put higher inputs in the second half than the first half, we were slower in everything that we did, but fatigue. I don't think that the team is fatigued or looked fatigued and the best way to put it is just to convince them how good they are and when they do what they have to do, and this is what we have to put in our brains.
on why we were not able to bounce back from the penalty miss today…
Well, because after we cannot control what West Ham was proposing and conceding goals away, when you concede two or three goals away from home, it's really difficult to win football matches as we did and we have to blame ourselves for how we defended the boxes.
on whether the pressure of the season has played a part today…
I would say yes. If I see a team from the beginning playing like that, when I see a team playing with that flow? And at two-nil, that’s certainly not the pressure. We misunderstood what the game required in that moment.
on how Saka can bounce back from his penalty miss…
The same that the team has to respond because probably if you go three-nil, you're going to win the match and maybe you win the game for a bigger margin and then we are not discussing about what happened here. So you have to put everything into context. If you are prepared to take responsibility to take penalties. You have to know that in that package the possibility to miss, It's 100% at some stage you are going to miss a penalty and you have to be able to react after that, or you cannot be a penalty taker. Bukayo has been through that and it will go through that again.
on Saka being a great player to take the penalty responsibility...
For sure. And you have to be one player to do it. He has to be then, it was a crucial moment. We missed it and this is football.
on whether West Ham’s penalty was correctly awarded…
I haven't seen the image and it's too late and I don't really want to use that as an excuse.
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