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Saka: "We have to stick together"

Bukayo Saka has emphasised the importance of character and unity following Sunday's defeat to Manchester United at Emirates Stadium.

We took a first-half lead in N5 but were pegged back, with the visitors themselves leading twice and going on to see out their three points.

Bukayo has admitted his frustration at what went wrong for us during the match, and how vital it is to rapidly lift ourselves again.

"I think we didn't show our best level for the full game, which is frustrating - it's such a big game with a lot riding on it," he said.

"[In] football, you can score, you can concede - it's your reaction after to it. Obviously, we would have wanted to make it 2-0, but we didn't. Overall, we're just not too happy with the performance.

"Obviously, the Emirates has been a place where we've been so strong this season. It's a tough loss to take, but we have to stick together. We go again next week; we'll try and get back to winning ways."

Saka explained the reasons for the defeat and stressed that this is no time to be blaming individuals, but rather bearing the defeat head-on and responding in the best possible way.

"I think it's more how we defended and where the goals started from that we’re more disappointed with," he confessed.

"Obviously, they were amazing strikes, you can't take that away from them. It’s how we defended in certain moments, that were a lot more disappointing.

"It’s not the time to point fingers, blame anyone, we have to stick together. Next week we'll go again."

Wednesday night provides our next test as we look to seal eight wins out of eight in the league phase of the Champions League, against Kairat Almaty at Emirates Stadium.

Following that European night, comes a trip to Elland Road to renew acquaintances with Leeds United next Saturday, January 31.

"The journey's not always going to be smooth, there's going to be ups and downs. It's up to us to show our character next week," affirmed Saka.

"That's the plan. That's all our focus is now, we can't change the result now. We look forward and onto next week."

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