Interview

'We'll get better at game management'

Arteta

While Mikel Arteta was pleased with our aggressive start against Crystal Palace, he knows we can still work on our game management.

Our high pressing enabled us to take an early lead at Selhurst Park, but giving away a cheap free-kick would ultimately cost us in the capital.

So what did Arteta make of his team's approach?

"I asked them to go 100 miles per hour to chase the ball, to be very aggressive when we didn't have it, to win it back as quickly as possible and they tried to do that," he said.

"We need to know that there are certain areas we can do it. Against these kinds of teams, it's dangerous because they bring the two centre backs up. They put the ball in the box and you have to defend.

"Their goal was a consequence of a sequence of a number of things that happened afterwards. We have to know to play these situations a little bit better. In terms of effort and spirit that they showed - it was top.

"It's game management, it's game moments, and we'll get better at it. We need to know that at this type of ground, that we don't want to put ourselves on the back foot in set-piece situations because they are really good and work a lot on it."