Arteta: “We have to learn from that"

After seeing his side lose 3-1 to Manchester United, Mikel Arteta praises the efforts and personality shown by the players but admits that it needs to be backed up with a result.

After enjoying spells in the game where we dominated the ball and created a lot of chances, Arteta felt we lacked discipline at times.



“We have to learn from that," he said. "We lacked the discipline that is necessary in certain areas of the pitch against these world-class players to prevent certain spaces, because overall when you look at the performance and the way we played, obviously the result should’ve been very, very different.”

The boss touched on the positives that he saw in the team's performance on the pitch at Old Trafford, adding: “The personality of the team showed, the way we dominated the game, the way we imposed ourselves in the way we wanted to play.

"That has to be backed up with a result. That’s the disappointment today.”

Speaking after the game Mikel reflected on the momentum shift in the match before and after Bukayo Saka got the team back level.

“I thought the game was more for the taking at half-time, that’s what I said to the boys. If we do what we have to do, we’re going to win the game. We started to do it and we were dominant, we scored one goal, and we created chance after chance. But in the best moment of the game, we conceded a goal, that is our own mistake.”

The boss had positives to take from the game with the team still sitting top of the Premier League table with only one defeat in the first six games of the season.

“Yeah difficult to see it now because we are all disappointed, we put so much into this game and are really pleased with the effort and the quality the boys showed today but we need to move on to the next one.”