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Mikel Arteta has urged his Arsenal side to look forward to their next challenge and not dwell on their loss to PSV Eindhoven in the Europa League on Thursday night.
THE LOWDOWN: SLOPPY PERFORMANCE
The 40-year-old oversaw his team’s first defeat in the Europa League this season when they travelled to the Netherlands to take on last season’s KNVB Cup winners.
The Gunners claiming a narrow 1-0 victory in the reverse fixture in London a week previous and were aiming to secure top spot on Group A on Thursday. However, that script was not followed.
It came as no surprise that the Eredivisie ran the Gunners ragged on home soil. Two first-half disallowed goals helped Arsenal to survive until half-time, but they could not keep PSV out for long and eventually ended up losing the match 2-0.
THE LATEST: DISAPPOINTMENT BUT TIME TO MOVE ON
In his post-match comments on Thursday night, Arteta expressed his disappointment at what was Arsenal’s second loss of what has been a very solid campaign to date.
The Gunners boss said: “I’m very disappointed. It’s the end of a long run, where we won a lot of games and today is our first defeat [since the start of September] and we have to reset.
“Congratulations to PSV – they were the better team today. We were nowhere near our level and we know that in Europe, it’s very difficult to win [then].
“We didn’t get any control. We didn’t get the ball in the areas we wanted. We gave so many balls away, which allowed so many transitions, which was what they were looking for whenever they got in the right structure. They were on top of a lot of things that last week was different.”
Arteta is hoping to reset in the team’s upcoming Premier League game against Nottingham Forest on Sunday, saying: “It’s really difficult to win every game in Europe.
“We are in a really good position. We’re disappointed tonight but there’s no time to feel sorry for ourselves. We have to react. On Sunday, we have a really important game, and then we’ll look at Zurich.
“We have to be much better than we were today. We knew what they were trying to do and the way we executed certain actions, the way we competed, it wasn’t good enough.”
THE VERDICT: DESTINY STILL IN ARSENAL’S HANDS
Arsenal have already qualified for the knockout rounds of the Europa League. However, they can swerve a round of 32 clash against a Champions League dropout with victory in their final group game at home to FC Zurich next Thursday.
Beating the Swiss side will guarantee top spot regardless of what PSV do against Bodo/Glimt, so the Gunners’ European destiny is very much in their own hands in spite of the setback in Eindhoven.
