After Arsenal’s 3-1 defeat to Manchester City, Mikel Arteta spoke to the media about the match and the team’s performance. He expressed his frustration with the errors that cost Arsenal the game, despite their good performance.

Arsenal's Spanish manager Mikel Arteta (R) speaks to Arsenal's Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka during the English Premier League football match between Arsenal and Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium in London on February 15, 2023.  (Photo by IAN KINGTON/IKIMAGES/AFP via Getty Images)
Arsenal’s Spanish manager Mikel Arteta (R) speaks to Arsenal’s Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka during the English Premier League football match between Arsenal and Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium in London on February 15, 2023. (Photo by IAN KINGTON/IKIMAGES/AFP via Getty Images)

After the game, Mikel Arteta was asked about how Arsenal would keep morale high in the squad after a run of bad results, and he responded by saying that they need to move on from the defeat and understand why they lost.

He said that the performance was there in many ‘situations’, and the team did exceptionally well. However, they now need to pick up the points in the next game against Aston Villa.

When asked if Manchester City controlled the game in the second half, Arteta said that it was probably a combination of things. Arsenal did a lot of simple things wrong and put themselves in trouble.

Arteta was also asked about whether Thomas Partey’s injury affected the team, to which he responded that it was part of football, and there were no excuses. He added that Jorginho played a really good game, and they would have to assess Thomas to see how bad the injury is.

When asked about how late the fitness call was with Thomas, Arteta said that it was “very late, very, very late”.

Regarding whether playing out from the back cost Arsenal, Arteta said that errors happen as part of the risks they take, the risk and reward is understanding what they have to do.

Arteta admitted that they didn’t understand well enough what they had to do, especially in the second half when Manchester City changed their formation. However, they still created “big problems for City”, and it’s always a balance.

Arteta was asked if a lack of squad rotation in recent weeks cost Arsenal in the second half, to which he responded with a simple “no.”

When asked if Manchester City’s experience decided the match, Arteta said that he didn’t know if it was experience or bad luck.

He also mentioned that he had never seen Takehiro Tomiyasu make that sort of poor pass in seven years.

Mikel Arteta’s post-Manchester City press conference

Following our 3-1 defeat against Manchester City, Mikel Arteta was soon tackling questions from the world’s media inside Emirates Stadium.

He was asked about how the game panned out, injury updates and selection decisions, as well as how we turn the corner starting with Saturday’s game against Aston Villa.

Here is everything he had to say:

on the two errors for Manchester City’s goals:
That’s the frustration – it’s exceptionally difficult to play at the level that they require you to play at to have the chance to win. I think we’ve done it and in many moments we had them, but if you give three goals the way we did – just give them the game – and especially when you don’t put the big chances that we had away, the margin of error for them is almost zero. It’s a shame because we really had them.

on how we keep morale high in the squad:
Just move on and realise why we lost the game. We lost it – I think we lost it. We have to move on because the performance was there in many situations. For our team to play at the level that we have to play at to reach that, it’s very difficult and the boys did exceptionally well. The atmosphere was just incredible and the shame is just that we didn’t get the points.

on if Manchester City controlled matters in the second half:
It’s probably a combination. We did a lot of simple things wrong and put ourselves in trouble. Gabriel was out and we played a quick free-kick and suddenly we were in trouble. We gave it away in areas that are impossible [to give the ball away in] against them if you don’t want your goal to be threatened.

on if Thomas Partey’s injury affected the team:
We don’t know. It’s what happens – it’s part of football. There are no excuses. I think Jorgi played a really good game and we’ll have to assess Thomas to see how bad it is.

on how late the fitness call was with Thomas:
Very late, very, very late.

on if playing out from the back cost us:
When errors happen as part of the risks we take, the risk and reward is understanding what we have to do. We didn’t understand well what we had to do, especially in the second half, when they changed their formation and went in a different shape. But we came out of there a lot of times and created big problems for them, so it’s always that balance.

on if Ederson should have got a second yellow card:
I don’t know. I haven’t seen it back, the action is gone and there’s nothing we can do now.

on if a lack of squad rotation in recent weeks cost us in the second half:
No.

on if Manchester City’s experience decided the match:
I don’t know if it’s experience, or it’s bad luck, I’ve never seen Tomiyasu make that backpass in seven years and he did it today. It’s part of it, and obviously, they have the quality to punish you.

on how Takehiro Tomiyasu is after the match:
All the players are feeling down, especially because they knew that we could do much better today to get a very different result and we just gave them the game.

on why Tomiyasu started over Ben White:
The same argument as why he played against Liverpool here when we won.

on how he picks the players up after this defeat:
We have to pick the points up because the performances are there. For sure what we’ve done today against this team, believe me, this wasn’t the game that they wanted to play, but we wanted the points and we didn’t get them and, at the end, the games are decided in the boxes. We have given too much away today and we weren’t ruthless enough to convert our chances and that’s where we have to improve.

on if being second in the table is a psychological disadvantage:
Psychologically there is a marathon still, so psychologically there is very far to go. I said it at the start, I said it three months ago and I say it today, it’s about tomorrow and the most important thing is how we are tomorrow and focus on that, because the rest of the things, we don’t know what’s going to happen.

on Manchester City pushing high in the second half:
Yes, that’s something that they do.