Mikel Arteta had a solid plan for his shorthanded Arsenal against Liverpool on Sunday at Anfield, and it would’ve gone wonderfully if not for Dominik Szoboszlai.
Liverpool’s Hungarian star scorched a sensational free kick past a flying David Raya in the 82nd minute to give the Reds a late lead over the title-chasing Gunners and deny them a point heading into the international break.
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Arsenal were without Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka, then lost William Saliba to injury before Sunday’s game was five minutes old. And, as Arteta said later, the injury may have occurred even earlier in the day.
The Gunners were also limited to 20 minutes of Martin Odegaard off the bench, but still looked set for a point after a cagey display on Merseyside.
Enter Szoboszlai. How did Mikel Arteta view the game?
Mikel Arteta reaction to Arsenal 0-1 Liverpool, Szoboszlai free kick, Saliba injury
Thoughts on the game? “I was very disappointed with the result. Very proud of my players. Both teams dug in so there was no margin between the two. Not much in the boxes. It was going to be decided by two possible actions: an individual error or a magic moment. And it was a magic moment from the other side.”
Something changed around the hour mark? “You cannot dominate here 95 minutes. You’re going to go through those moments. We navigated without conceding anything, but at the end of the game I said we have to find a way to win these big matches. A lot of times, our individual magic moments will decide it. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case with an incredible free kick.”
What can make you better in these big games? “You have to put the ball in the back of the net when you have chances. We were much better than last year when we drew the game — much, much better. Today when we had three, four, five chances in the box, 1v1, we just have to finish.”
How did injuries change the plan? “We lost Martin, Kai, then Bukayo the week before. In the warm-ups you lose Saliba. It affects us but I’m very proud of the players the way they reacted, the way with their qualities they implemented what we wanted to do. And again the margin was almost zero.”
Why didn’t you start Eberechi Eze? “He’s been here four, five days with us. He had very good exposure today. I fully believe in the players who played.”
How do you stop this from being a big step back? “You can take a lot of positives from the game. I haven’t seen Liverpool often look like that at home like they did against us. We go on again.”