Arteta: ‘We were far from our standards’ | News

Mikel Arteta said we were far from our standards after suffering a 2-1 defeat at home to Bournemouth in the Premier League.

Goals from Junior Kroupi and Alex Scott gave the Cherries the win, despite Viktor Gyokeres bagging his 18th goal of the campaign.

Following the match, the boss said we must take the pain from the defeat and move forward for the remaining games of the season.

He said: “A very disappointing result, we were very far from the standards that we’ve shown all season, so it’s a big punch in the face because we wanted to win this game so badly, and we didn’t cope with the situations when they didn’t go our way.

“You have to give them credit for what they’ve done and how efficient they were with the chances they created.

“But at the same time, we have to look at ourselves which is the most important thing, and after getting punched, it’s about how you react. There’s no more moment to protect anything, it’s a moment to go and attack, and to be very aggressive.”

There’s an opportunity to get back to winning ways on Wednesday when we take on Sporting CP in the Champions League quarter-final second leg at Emirates Stadium.

Mikel said it was a big chance in a different competition and an opportunity to reach back-to-back semi-finals in the UCL for the first time in our history.

He said: “For sure, a different competition as well. We have the opportunity to go into the semi-finals of the Champions League, and that’s what we have to focus on right now. But again, I think we need to go through that pain, and use it in the right way.

“If you want to win those kinds of competitions, you have to go through difficult moments and what we need for sure is all the players available and fit, in the best condition. We need to get that nailed as quickly as possible, because that’s going to be very helpful. Go through the pain today, and tomorrow is a new day.”