Izuchukwu Okosi
Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta insists that his players are not under pressure despite the 1-0 defeat to Everton in the Premier League on Saturday.
James Tarkowski’s header on the hour mark gave Everton manager, Sean Dyche a winning start to life at Goodison Park and condemned the Gunners to only their second league defeat of the season.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelArsenal’s best chance came when Bukayo Saka saw his goalbound effort cleared off the line by Conor Coady as the visitors struggled to threaten Jordan Pickford’s goal in the second period.
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Defeat left Arsenal five points clear at the top of the table, with title rivals Manchester City playing Tottenham on Sunday, but Arteta thinks his side is still relaxed.
Asked whether his players were feeling any pressure, Arteta said: “No, I don’t think so, we’ve played a lot of games this season like that already.
“But credit to them, this is what they train every single day. You have to defend really well to get your control and earn the right to play. For moments we did it and in other moments we didn’t do it well enough to dominate the game.
“In the last 10 or 15 minutes, particularly after we made the changes, we started to give away a lot of free-kicks and a lot of rash decisions.
“Which is exactly what they want – slow the game down, do everything really long, play long into your line and don’t play a lot. We haven’t managed that well enough.
“I want the team to know how much I love them. I love them much more now than three hours ago, a week ago, a month ago, three months ago.
“It’s very easy to be next to the players when they’re winning and performing. These are the moments when I love my players more and my staff more and we’re going to stay together.
Arsenal’s next league game is against Brentford next week Saturday before a top-of-the-table clash against Manchester City.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
