Mikel Arteta suggested that Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat to Villarreal was the best result possible if they were to lose their first leg.
The Gunners made a dreadful start to their Europa League semi-final. Villarreal opened the scoring in the fifth minute through Manuel Trigueros, as he found the bottom corner from inside the area.
Arsenal’s situation was made worse before the half-hour mark as the hosts got their second. Gerard Moreno flicked it to the back post to Raul Albiol, who fired it in from close range.
FEATURE: Tottenham and Arsenal ‘top’ net transfer debts list
Mikel Arteta’s problems were compounded just before the hour mark. Dani Ceballos was shown his second yellow card as a result of a poor challenge on Daniel Parejo.
Nicolas Pepe got an important away goal for Arsenal from the penalty spot before Etienne Capoue was also shown his second yellow card in the 80th minute for Villarreal. It finished 2-1 and they will do it all again next Thursday in the return leg at The Emirates.
Arteta told BT Sport, as cited by BBC Sport, that Arsenal are used to Bukayo Saka playing well but they cannot “always” rely on him to save them:
“We didn’t want to come here and lose but after the way the game developed, you have to take the result,” Arteta said. “If you have to lose it is probably the best result we could have.
“Two different halves. We started to be us, in the first half there were so many moments we weren’t.
“We started to chase and were not precise with the ball, didn’t have enough control. We didn’t have enough threat or desire to attack the box, in the second half it was completely different.
“We are very used to that (Bukayo Saka playing well) this season, but it tells us we need to do much more as we cannot always rely on him. Bernd Leno was very good, at 2-0, the chance with Gerard Moreno, he saved us.
“We had a big chance with Auba to draw the game. I am confident we have a chance to win.”
The post Arteta ‘confident’ of progressing but Arsenal ‘cannot rely’ on winger appeared first on Football365.