Mikel Arteta labelled his team’s performance ‘immense’ in our 2-2 draw against Aston Villa, but lamented the defending which allowed the visitors to leave north London with a point.
Playing our sixth game in the past 18 days, we deservedly went 2-0 up, before Villa rallied to earn a draw. It extended our winning run in the league to 12 matches, but saw us fall two points further behind Liverpool at the top of the table.
“I think the performance was immense,” the manager said afterwards. “The boys were incredible, the way they went about it after playing three times in six days so I’m so pleased with the quality of the performance and how much we dominated a very, very good side.
“For everything we did in the game actually to get a draw, very disappointed, very frustrated, very sad because it doesn’t reflect what the game did but as well I think there is a part where we have to blame ourselves, especially with one of the goals we conceded because it cannot be part of our game it won’t constantly win football matches.”
The manager made just two changes from the side that beat Tottenham at home on Wednesday night, with William Saliba added to the injury list ahead of the game. But despite the stretched nature of the squad at the moment, we had 18 shots on the Villa goal, and could have won it late on but for VAR disallowing Havertz’s goal.
“Straight away after the second half, we have two big clear chances to score the goals and we don't,” Arteta added. “And then there are two arrivals [in our box], two goals. And then my fear was because I knew how tired the boys were because they have to repeat that in six days that we could go downhill. But we find a way to put another gear, another level of intensity, quality. Bring Aston Villa, really, really low and create two or three big chances to score. We scored one. It was disallowed, unfortunately, so emotionally difficult to accept it.
“It's tough because when I see the team putting so much into it, I know the detail. I know what we're going through at the moment, especially with the numbers that we have, and that they don't get rewarded. It really hurts me.”
The games keep coming, and our fifth consecutive home game on Wednesday is against Dinamo Zagreb on matchday seven of the Champions League league phase.
“A different focus, now a few more days as well,” Arteta said, “because we need a little break now to get back to shape. To reset a little bit and go again because the last week or so has been very demanding at every level.”
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