Title-chasing Arsenal managed to shake off rock-bottom Wolves at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday night and Mikel Arteta was honest about his team.
Mikel Arteta criticized Arsenal’s performance despite their dramatic win against Wolves. The Gunners continued their march toward the title with a 2-1 win late in the game, but the scoreline didn’t tell the whole story.
Arsenal took the lead through Sam Johnstone’s own goal, but struggled to completely overwhelm Wolves. Then, in stoppage time, Tolu Alokodare equalized and it looked like a comeback.
Yerson Mosquera became the second Wolves player to find the ball in his own net, giving the north London side an eventual victory. “It was a roller coaster,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said after his team’s dramatic win.
“The longer the game went on, the more they had hope and we had to accelerate the game and take more risks. In the first half we created a lot of situations without clear big chances. After we scored the goal, we went deep and were very passive for two minutes and conceded that goal, but it was a very poor goal.”
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“We pushed and found a way to score with the connection between Gabi (Jesus) and Bukayo. We were obviously happy because that’s what we wanted.”
Arsenal’s head coach added: “It was a last reaction. But we know it wasn’t enough. We didn’t concede a single shot in the box all game, but in their first action afterwards we looked very passive and that wasn’t at the level we needed to win the game easily.”
Arsenal’s victory over Wolves left them five points clear at the top of the Premier League, but Manchester City will not face Crystal Palace this weekend. And although their title challenge remains on track, Arteta was disappointed that his side’s margin of victory was not as wide.
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“We found a way and that’s a very positive thing. If we hadn’t, we would have been very frustrated and rightly so, but obviously there are things we can improve on and there’s a lot to improve on, especially with what we got in the game, the game should have been even bigger. But that’s it. Win the game and move on.”
Arsenal will look to extend their advantage next weekend when they face Everton at the Hill Dickinson Stadium ahead of their Carabao Cup quarter-final clash with Crystal Palace.
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