Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was far from satisfied at the final whistle on Sunday, despite watching his side show great character to battle back from 2-0 down and secure a hard-fought point at Anfield.
The Gunners went into half-time two goals down against the newly-crowned champions, having conceded twice in the space of two first-half minutes.
And even though the north London side battled back to extend their unbeaten Premier League run against Liverpool to six matches, the manager admitted that the team’s performance in the opening 45 minutes fell short of the high standards expected.
“I’m very disappointed,” Arteta said, “because we can talk about our reaction and the second half, what we’ve done, but I don’t like that at all. I like action, not reaction. And what I saw from the team in the first 25 minutes is nowhere near the standards that we require, especially in things that we can control and we have to do”.
“And that’s fully my responsibility. And yes, the way we played afterwards, we reacted again with a lot of injuries and playing in this atmosphere and with how much hurting we went through in the last few days after the PSG outcome. Learn from it.”
Despite his frustration with the first-half display, Arteta acknowledged there were positives to take from the comeback — particularly the resilience shown to see out the draw after Mikel Merino’s late red card.
“Yes, but this is us. This is what we can do. And we play again for the sixth time in the season with 10 men and we have half of our starters not available. And we can still perform that way.”
Now placed in second, Arsenal have two matches left to secure that position, starting next week at home to Newcastle. The boss is determined to see the side finish the season strongly.
“We have to. We have a massive game now against Newcastle. We cannot be the best so we have to make sure that we are the best of the rest. And against Newcastle, we have the opportunity to wrap that up.”
Elsewhere, Gabriel Martinelli continued his positive record of 45 games where Arsenal are yet to lose on the occasion when he has scored. He said after the game against Liverpool: “I’ll try to score every single game from now on! I mean, it’s really good to have these stats. I just try to do my best for the team.”
“It’s really good to play against them,” he added. “It’s really hard as well. I always try to do my best, not just against them, against every team, but against them, I think I’ve got a bit more lucky, and it’s an open game as well.
