- Mikel Arteta was let down by his defense squad as Spurs came from behind to win 2-1 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday.
The Gunners suffered a damaging defeat as their ambition of qualifying for the Europa League was killed. The progress was good after winning four and drawing one of their last five games.
Jose Mourinho’s squad applied a couple of tactical patterns against Arsenal. Mike acknowledged that Mourinho’s new tactics gave Spurs a better chance of winning.
Arteta chose to focus on the positives and intends to use the lessons to reinforce his squad as they await FA Cup which is in the semi-final stage.
“I can see what [Mourinho’s] trying to do and, look, he wins again. It’s two completely different styles. He manages really well; he has a good team behind him. He always finds a way to win it,” Arteta said.
“Points-wise it’s a massive blow because we know the results this weekend, but we’ll keep trying while we have hope. We’ll fight in the league and the FA Cup to do our best and try to finish as strong as possible,” he explained.
“I’m disappointed and frustrated. I’m really sorry for the boys first, because of the personality they showed to come here and show who we are.
“Nullify the opponent, press them high, just force them to kick the ball long and defend [in] a low block, which is exactly what we wanted to do, but if you give two goals away against these players it’s difficult to win a derby.” He added.
“We can do more and be more incisive and exploit spaces better than what we’ve done. Sometimes the rhythm, the urgency, and the link of distances wasn’t exactly there, many times it was, and the purpose was there.
“To attack a template that is like this [puts one hand in front of the other all the time is not an easy thing to do. We tried and had enough chances to win a derby” concluded the boss.
