Mikel Arteta Critical of Thomas Partey Role for Second Tottenham Goal
By Tom Gott
Arsenal's bitterly disappointing season continued on Sunday as a 2-0 loss to north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur saw them plummet to 15th in the Premier League table.
Despite enjoying close to 70% of the possession, Arsenal rarely looked like threatening and were ruthlessly undone by goals from Son Heung-min and Harry Kane in the first half.
Here's what manager Mikel Arteta had to say about the game.
On the Performance in General
"In terms of the performance they did everything I asked them to do," Arteta said (via football.london). "Absolutely everything. We played the way I believe we had to believe this game.
"You look at all the stats, they're in our favour but at the end of the day it's about putting the ball in the box. The first situation they had from 30 yards they put it in the top corner. You have to applaud it. The second one, Thomas [Partey] has to come off, we can not fill the gap that he should be in and we get done.
"But at the end of the day we have to score the goals and when they had a half chance they scored, and at the moment we haven't. To build something you need results.
"I take a lot of positives for the way we played, when we come here in this moment and play with the personality, the courage, the passion, the energy and the belief the boys showed. At the end it's a football match and you have to win it, and we lost again today."
On Why Partey Tried to Leave the Pitch
On the stroke of half-time and with Arsenal attacking, summer signing Thomas Partey walked over the touchline to talk about an injury he had picked up, but Spurs recovered possession and charged through the empty midfield to score their second goal with the last kick of the half.
"It is an injury, in the same area unfortunately. We don't know how bad it is. I was trying to push him. I don't think he realised the gravity of the situation when he left his position. Probably because he was in a lot of pain. There's nothing we can do at the moment to resolve that.
"It was too quick. We were through. I think it was a four against two situation for us to play the final ball. Suddenly they are coming to us and Thomas is walking to me. I'm trying to push him. I haven't spoken to him, I don't know exactly how it happened. If he felt something really serious. I will look at it and we'll talk about it."
On How to Turn Things Around
"By scoring goals, very simple. We need to score goals. If not, it's unsustainable. It doesn't matter what we do in other departments of the pitch, if we don't score goals we can't do nothing. We need to put the ball in the net, urgently."
On Whether He Feels Under Pressure
"I have to support the players, keep fighting and keep going - there is not any other way," Arteta added (via BBC Sport).
"But I saw a team. I saw my team full of desire, passion, dominating the game, creating all the chances, all the situations, but in the end it is about the end product and this is why they are first in the table."
On His Side's High Number of Crosses
? "It hurts a lot. We know what the derby means to all of us."
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) December 6, 2020
? Watch the full interview with the boss after #TOTARS ?
Arsenal put in 44 crosses against Spurs but failed to take advantage of any of them, and that came just a week after the Gunners floated in 33 crosses in the 2-1 loss to Wolves.
"Yeah [we have the right players to score from crosses], you could see from the chances we've created as well.
"A cross doesn't mean just an aerial cross. There were a lot of good parts where we penetrated the penalty box on numerous occasions, just to find the last pass or the final ball and the goal came through, we didn't hit it, they blocked it - it was a lot of things to happen. If we generate it every week we will win football matches. At the moment it looks like we need to do a lot to score a goal."