=Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was happy with how his team handled the loss to Leicester City, but he said some things that were concerning.
Following Arsenal’s close escape from losing a hard-fought win over Leicester City on Saturday, Mikel Arteta admitted to being “worried.” Gunners beat struggling Premier League team Wolves in an exciting 4–2 win, but the game was much tighter than the score showed.
Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard scored goals in the first half, giving Arsenal a 2-0 lead and making it look like they would easily win. Even though the Gunners had many chances to extend their lead, they were pushed back in the second half. Leicester’s James Justin scored two goals to tie the game, which made Arsenal fans nervous.
In the last few seconds of the game, Wilfred Ndidi scored an own goal by mistake, and then Kai Havertz scored to give Arteta’s team all three points. With the win, Arsenal is now tied for first place in the Premier League with Manchester City, who lost points in a 1-1 draw with Newcastle United. Both teams have 14 points.
Arteta was worried about how his team lost control of the game after it was over, but he praised their ability to get it back. The Arsenal boss said after the game, “I am happier with how we dealt with it—emotionally in control.” It made me worry. At this point, we shouldn’t have been here in the first place, but that’s sport. This is what makes football great compared to other games.
Arteta said that the game became more emotional than imagined during the second half, which was very chaotic. “It should have been a bigger score after 2-0.” This is the Premier League. Two goals were scored. “But I’m really happy with how we responded,” he said.
Arsenal had many chances to score during the game—36 shots, 16 of which were on target—but Leicester’s goalie Mads Hermansen played phenomenally to keep the score close. Arteta said that the missed chances could hurt his hopes of winning the title. “Being honest, it was hard to accept because we should have scored so many goals,” he said.
Even though there were some tense times, Mikel Arteta was happy with how his team played overall. He told Match of the Day, “My first thought is that I’m very happy with the performance.” I think we did really great today. We should have scored a lot more goals to win. The team had an amazing amount of spirit to keep going and make chance after chance.
Next up, Arsenal will play Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League this coming Wednesday. On Saturday, they will play Southampton in the Premier League, which is a tough match.
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