Arteta Defends Arsenal’s Strategy After Draw with Manchester City
Mikel Arteta, Arsenal’s technical director, defended his team’s selection after the 1-1 draw against Manchester City. Arteta stated that his team “completely dominated” the game, despite not achieving a complete victory, even after recording record possession against the team led by Pep Guardiola.
Arsenal are now five points behind leaders Liverpool after a late Gabriel Martinelli goal earned a draw at the Emirates, following Erling Haaland’s opener for City.
Arteta’s team was so dominant that they recorded 67.2% possession during the 90 minutes, the highest figure ever recorded against a team managed by Guardiola.
Despite leaving players like Eberechi Eze, Bukayo Saka and Martinelli on the bench, Arteta rejected suggestions that his starting lineup lacked ambition.
“I leave that to your judgment,” Arteta told reporters. “But there were a lot of attacking players in that team.”
Mikel Arteta
Arteta continued, “It’s easy to say that, but we started the game very well and dominated completely. City scored a goal and then did nothing. Everyone tries to do their best to get a result, that’s fine.”
“But we controlled the game and dominated, and the second half was the same. I am extremely proud of my players and the team, but very disappointed with the result. The pride I feel is that we dominated the game. Keeping City to that, chapeau to the lads.”
The striker Viktor Gyökeres, a summer signing for Arsenal, failed to register a shot against City, but Arteta said it was because his team couldn’t find the key pass for the Swedish international.
“There were many very good balls in the area and he [Gyökeres] was very close to them,” Arteta said. “Against City, it’s very difficult to get clear chances. There were many situations, the opportunities were there, but the final pass was missing.”
Although Arsenal is five points behind Liverpool, Arteta is confident that his players will be “fine” in the fight for the title.
“We can’t control that. They [Liverpool] win every game,” Arteta said. “It’s going to be very difficult, but if we play at this level, like we did against Manchester City, we’ll be fine.”
