After what was a much tougher match than the home fixture, Arsenal beat Bodo/Glimt 1-0 on Thursday night to stay top of Europa League Group A and both Mikel Arteta and Bukayo Saka agreed – the pitch was no excuse for what was a poor performance.
Before this match, Bodo/Glimt had won their last 14 European games at home. As part of that run they had even beaten Jose Mourinho’s Roma 6-1, which is as hilarious as it is surprising.
The match was tough and, let’s be honest, not that much fun to watch. But after being spoiled so far this season, we can suck up the odd match like this without complaint, especially when you consider the number of changes that were made.
“It’s a really tough place to come, they’ve won here the last 14 games in European competition and that’s not a coincidence, we’ve seen that tonight,” Mikel Arteta said after the game.
“We had good periods in the game, we had periods we struggled especially in the second half. We didn’t find enough continuity, in some moments we were lucky not to concede a goal.”
A reporter tried to get Arteta to use the plastic pitch as an excuse, but Arteta is not Jurgen Klopp, so he didn’t.
“It doesn’t matter what it is,” he said.
“We said you have to find a way to win every three days.
“When it’s snowing, when it’s raining, when it’s astroturf, when the pitch is not good, when it’s long, when you make seven changes, like this.
“You have to find a way to win and today I’m really pleased because we found a way to win again.”
Goalscorer and match-winner, Bukayo Saka, also spoke to reporters after the game. He, too, was asked about the plastic pitch, but like his boss, did not give the reporters what they were looking for.
“Yeah, it did [get some getting used to],” Saka answered.
“You know, it was skidding across the floor really fast and stuff like this.
“But that’s not an excuse you know, a lot of us have grown up [on it]. Myself at Hale End, I played on astroturf pitches a lot. So it’s no excuse you know, we just have to play our game and get on with it.
“It’s a very difficult place to come and we left here with three points, so we have to just take it and focus on Sunday now.”