Arsenal salvaged a late draw against Crystal Palace thanks to Alexandre Lacazette’s injury-time strike in the Premier League clash.
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Arsenal scored a dramatic late injury-time goal to secure a point against Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Monday night. Manager Mikel Arteta saw his side start strong and take an early lead through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. However, they conceded twice in the second half. But, they still managed to salvage a late draw thanks to Alexandre Lacazette. During the match, promising young winger Bukayo Saka had to be removed at half-time due to an injury. “Bukayo could not continue. We had to take him off at half time. I saw the action and I can’t believe how the player continued on the pitch,” Arteta said in his post match press conference, according to the club’s website.
When asked whether Saka will be okay, Arteta replied, “I don’t know, we will see how it evolves. Obviously he couldn’t continue and he’s a boy that’s pretty tough and wants to keep playing, but he could not carry on and we have a quick turnaround for the next game, so we will see how he evolves.”
Arteta also spoke about how he liked the reaction of his team after they went behind in the second half. “The game had different periods with the way that we started really brave and dominant to score the first goal, but then we had a bad period when we started to give too many balls away and had no composure to control the game after having the lead. Then in the second half when we were again in control we gave the ball away two times and gave away two very cheap goals, but after that I really liked the reaction from the team, how they tried and we created more chances to score. In the end I think we got the reward that we deserved,” he added.
“Sometimes when you concede the goals that we had, you generate a lot of frustration individually and collectively and you just throw the game away, and we didn’t do that. The subs, I think they were terrific, the way that they came on and they transmitted real belief to the crowd that we could score the goal. These things happen for a reason and in the end we scored a goal because we kept fighting until the end.”
The manager also reminded everyone about the importance of injured Granit Xhaka and insisted that his absence was not the reason behind the team’s inability to get all three points. “We know the importance of Granit, what he brings to the team, the maturity, the reading of the game, consistency that he brings to the squad and the balance. He’s not available and he’s not going to be available for three or four months, we know that, and I totally believe in the other players. It’s not about him and today it was more of a collective issue with the lack of composure that we have on the ball in that half. That’s where we suffered and obviously the areas where we lost the ball today to give the goals away,” he added.
When asked about the disappointing aspects of the game, Arteta replied, “The lack of composure, to get hold of the ball, to understand what we had to do, and to show more quality. We started to defend something after scoring the goal, and that’s what I don’t really like. We started to play not forwards, and we kept the ball in the wrong areas and put ourselves in trouble. That’s the period I didn’t like. I think we got better in the second half, and the start was better when we had some control we, but we just gave the goals away,” he explained.
