After seeing us fall to defeat against Manchester City, Mikel Arteta admits his emotions are a mixture of pride and frustration.
Having recovered from falling behind when Kevin De Bruyne pounced on an error thanks to Bukayo Saka’s penalty, the game was in the balance before City capitalised on some more hesitation to take the lead through Jack Grealish.
An Erling Haaland strike put an unfair gloss on proceedings, meaning Mikel was left to rue mistakes at both ends of the pitch as a fine performance against the reigning champions was ultimately for no reward.
“It was an incredible atmosphere to play in and a huge battle,” he said post-match. “A battle that in many moments we felt that we could win it and we threw it away. It’s a big shame for the goals we gave them; we gave them three goals, and obviously for the big chances that we created and didn’t put away.
“You cannot give anything away. We gave them three goals, you don’t do that against City. Ninety-nine times out of 100, you’re going to lose the game. And we still had three big, big chances and we didn’t put them away. When that happens, you have zero chance to win.
“It made me proud the level we have raised today against probably the best team in the world, when they are able to play at the level with the players that we have. We have matched that level and believe me, that’s really difficult to do against this team.”
Having seen his team slip to second place in the Premier League and lose our unbeaten home record this term, Mikel is keen to quickly bounce back against Aston Villa on Saturday.
As well as wanting the three points to return to the summit, he also wants to reward our supporters for their incredible vocal backing tonight, and for cheering off a side that lost 3-1 at full-time.
“There’s still a huge marathon to go for every single team,” was his assessment of the title race. “We have a huge battle now on Saturday again to keep going but the team continues to perform and play this way. We need to improve the efficiency in the box, that’s for sure, we want to get more points.
“The atmosphere right from the beginning was electric, they drove the team. Hopefully we give them hope and joy, but it’s a shame because we really wanted to get the points for them.
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