Arteta was happy with the stunning saves made by Aaron Ramsdale, however, he felt Arsenal could have been more decisive in the counter-attacks against Liverpool.
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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was left frustrated with the dramatic 2-2 draw against Liverpool on Sunday in the Premier League. The game at Anfield was a roller-coaster ride for both teams. It started with the Gunners taking a brilliant 2-0 lead in one of the most difficult grounds to play football. However, Liverpool never lost hope, as they fought back impressively to get a point in the end.
Both sides would feel that they could have won the match, however, in the end, a point was a fair result. “Wow, super intense match. We started the game exceptionally well, dominated it, and took the game where we wanted. Scored the first one, and continued to play the way we wanted. We scored the second one and that was a moment to kill the game. And yet, before half-time, we gave them hope,” he was quoted as saying by Arsenal.com in his post-match press conference.
“We conceded the goal and they generated some belief in this special atmosphere and stadium. And the second half was a very different story. Not the way we started – I think we started really well in the first few minutes – but then we didn’t continue to play. We gave every single ball away especially in very dangerous areas when you allow open spaces in big transition moments against the best team in the world doing that. And when that happens, it’s chaos. It’s a lot of balls in your box, it’s difficult to get out of those situations and then you have to suffer.”
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Arteta was happy with the stunning saves made by Aaron Ramsdale, however, he felt Arsenal could have been more decisive in the counter-attacks against Liverpool. “We relied on big defensive moments where Aaron took a big part of it, and they missed the penalty. And then we could have nicked the game because we had three huge situations on the counter where they were overloaded or we were two against two. We missed that ruthlessness to take the game. So looking at the two halves, it’s probably a fair result. And you have to take it and the big lesson is ‘play the way we played the first half’,” he added.
Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal could have played better in the second half after the early promises they showed in the first half. “When you concede at the end, you always focus on dropping two points because you have it and you are suffering but you are relying on certain moments and the feeling is ‘Ah, we should have done it!’ But being fair to ourselves, they had four big chances where they could have scored and they missed the penalty. We will have to look at ourselves in the mirror and we should have done much better in the second half,” the manager explained.
