Mikel Arteta was left disappointed in Arsenal‘s 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace, as he said that his side dropped their standards.
The Arsenal manager discussed the manner of their performance and discussed what it meant ahead of their crucial UEFA Champions League semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain next Tuesday.
“We dropped our standards today and credit to Crystal Palace. We struggled to find consistency in the game. We gave the ball away in simply ways and we were late in everything we did. I am disappointed.
“We didn’t find enough consistency in actions to dominate the game. It’s part of football and cost us two points.
“We have spoke about avoiding our focus being elsewhere. We have enough time to prepare for PSG but today we didn’t deliver enough rights to win the game. It is nice to have long gap, we need it and we need players back to full strength.
“It can be difficult. In many aspects of the game we should have done better today.”
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“Credit to Palace, they are very well organised, they are a really good side, they made it difficult for us and everyone else, but today we weren’t at our best.
“We have the most important game of the season in six days. We need to get our energy back.”
“Hopefully not [looking past this fixture], but we discussed that before Ipswich [Town], and it wasn’t there, and today we still had six days to prepare that match, and I don’t want to use that.
“Obviously, we have missed a lot of players, a lot of players that haven’t trained at all, they weren’t able to do it today so we were very short.”
Trossard: PSG will be a different performance
Leandro Trossard scored Arsenal’s second goal of the match but admitted his team could not get the basics right. However, he is determined to ensure that this doesn’t happen again against PSG.
“The quality today wasn’t there compared to our last game. We were nowhere near that and we got punished.
“We need to raise the level with our big game coming up. We want to win every game, in any competition. Especially after the last game, we had a good feeling. We just need to be better.
“It was just the basics sometimes. Not passing on the right foot or taking a touch too much. It was myself as well, I just wasn’t good enough and we need to raise this in the next few days. It will be good to have six days now and prepare for this game with 100% focus. It will be a difference performance.”
Carragher: Arteta will be furious
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher felt Arsenal missed a good opportunity to move clear of the teams behind them in the race for the Champions League spots. Just 10 points separate Arteta‘s side from seventh-placed Aston Villa.
“I think Arteta will be furious.
“They will be fine for qualifying for the Champions League but you want to put it to bed as soon as you can. If they’d have won tonight you could write the [AFC] Bournemouth game off in between PSG and rest the whole team. I don’t think he’s in a position to do that now as Liverpool come after that.
“If they lose the next two games then they’re just behind you and they still have to play Newcastle. You just don’t want to be looking over your shoulder.”
