Mikel Arteta Arsenal
Was that too wild for your liking?
When you concede two poor goals like we did away from home in Europe, it’s very difficult to get a positive result. The game had different phases because we gave too many simple balls away in our own half and gave them the capacity to [exploit] transition moments which they are good at. In other moments we had total control of the game and we lost a little bit of threat today, especially with the four players we are missing in our frontline. Some positives because we showed a lot of resilience to get back in the game but we need to defend our box much better and be better on Sunday.
Kiwior ducking for the first goal. Was it lack of communication?
I don’t know what it was. It happened in a split second but for sure in that space somebody cannot have a free header and concede a goal.
Team not ready to give up on the title?
No we’re not. Today we had to go against a few issues when we lost a few players, three or four of our strikers, but in this competition if you want to go through, you’re going to have to go through difficult moments. We knew that, we are alive and everything is still to play for at the Emirates. Hopefully we play better and deserve to win the game.
Conceded a few more from set-pieces recently. What’s going on there?
Sometimes the opponents are really good at what they do. When they get the delivery in the right space it’s just half a centimetre sometimes whether you get that header out of the box or it goes it. It’s true that it’s something we must improve dramatically in the next few games if we want to keep winning.
What do you make of how Fabio Vieira is developing?
Really happy with him. I think he deserves more minutes than he’s had, especially in the last two months. Obviously he had a difficult start because we injured for two months after a surgery and wasn’t at the level that we want. You saw tonight he was probably our most dangerous player. He was always making things happen. He’s a player that I absolutely love.
What do you make of Ruben Amorim having faced him yourself?
What I said before the game. I really like him. What him and the coaching staff have done over the past few years is incredible. They are a really good team so credit to the manager because you can see they have a really clear idea.
Do you feel frustration that your team aren’t playing as well over the past few weeks or are you proud that they’re still able to get results?
We are conceding too many simple goals. We spoke about the importance of boxes, especially in a competition when you’re in or out. Today we didn’t defend that well enough and we have to be better at threatening the opponents as well. But of course you have an opponent there. We’ve played some really emotional games recently. We made a lot of changes today and sometimes that takes time to get that cohesion and you could feel it in the first 15 minutes that it needed some time to adapt and click. If we don’t expose them though that’s never going to happen.
