Riccardo Calafiori revealed that a simple instruction from Mikel Arteta at half-time turned our game against Sunderland on its head.
With us trailing to the Black Cats at the interval, the boss urged his players to win their battles against their opposite numbers in the second 45 to help us get a grip of proceedings, and taking that advice on board saw us come back to lead 2-1 thanks to goals from Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard.
However, late drama saw Brian Brobbey pinch an equaliser in the 93rd minute, but there was still time for Riccardo to pop up with a winner himself, but he saw a late header saved by Robin Roefs before Mikel Merino’s rebound was blocked.
Reflecting on that moment, our left-back said: “I didn’t know if I wanted to make an assist or to shoot on goal because the goalkeeper was coming really close to me. At the end Mikel was also there, so I don’t know, it’s a matter of actions.
“I think you can see we are really, really disappointed, especially because we came back. I really liked our reaction in the second half. I think we deserved \[the win\] and we dominated the game. At the end, for a matter of a duel or one action, we lost some points here.
“\[Arteta\] just said that we needed to basically win our duels and then from there we could start to play our game, so that’s what we did. I think you would have seen on the pitch in the second half, I think we deserved it, we played better than them and just in one action you concede, and you draw the game, but this is the level.”
Riccardo and his fellow defenders finally saw the ball hit the back of their net for the first time in nine matches, a staggering achievement that has only been achieved once in our entire 138-year history.
With us heading into the international break sitting above all our Premier League rivals in the table, he feels that we have to be satisfied with our start to the season, but have to be prepared for future challenges to come, with a north London derby against Tottenham next on the horizon.
“I’m so happy to be part of this team, this defensive line,” he added. “Whoever plays, I think we do really good, but I don’t really care about the record, I just want to win every game and try to concede as least as possible.
“We are top of the league so we must be happy at least, we need to think about that. We need to think about the next game which will be tough, and actually many games that will be tough in the next few months, so we are fully focused and I’m proud of my team so far.”
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