According to an interview from Arsenal’s official website, defender Sokratis has admitted that the Gunners ‘had to fight more’ against Crystal Palace.
The aggressive centre-back added that the team needed ‘to show more spirit and to give everything’. We looked in control during the opening 45 minutes, with skipper Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang giving us an early lead.
Unfortunately we happened to let Roy Hodgson’s men back into the clash in the second-half and this led to us being punished by a fortunate equaliser from Jordan Ayew.
Things went from bad to worse when Aubameyang’s initial yellow card was upgraded to a red after a dangerous challenge on Max Meyer.
Read More: Opinion – Can Arsenal blame VAR for losing points against Crystal Palace?
Here’s what the defender had to say on our display against the Eagles:
“The pressing they did I think was more aggressive, it was more difficult until we understand what we had to do. We reacted well, but second half we had to show more in the first 10 or 15 minutes and improve.”
“We are disappointed because I think that we play much better, especially the first 35 minutes when we played really good, we did what the manager asked from us and what we’d worked on the last few days.”
“We switched off for the first 10 minutes of the second half and the final five minutes of the first half.”
“Of course we took also an unlucky goal because until this moment I think they’d had maybe one shot. We took an unlucky red card and after it was difficult.”
“We had to fight more, to show more spirit and to give everything. In the end, one point I think we are not happy with, but it’s not also the worst.”
Arsenal fans really shouldn’t be too disheartened after Saturday afternoon’s display, we hope that Mikel Arteta and the team can learn from their errors in the future.
Perhaps some additional work on finishing could yield better results, we had enough chances to effectively dash Palace’s hopes of rescuing a draw, but we don’t seem to be clinical enough to put teams away while we’re ahead.
With Arteta beginning to successfully implement his methods into the team, it looks as though we’re on the right track.
When playing away:
– Every player has to be combative to help his teammates
– We can’t afford to miss a lot of chances
– The wide players should try to get to the byline, rather than losing the ball when trying fancy tricks
The next away game will be tough, because Lampard has beaten Arteta at the Emirates and Chelsea almost beat Man City at the Etihad when Arteta was still working with Guardiola. I hope Maitland-Niles and Kolasinac would be fit for that game
There’s a chance for arsenal to win Chelsea cos it’s at the Stamford bridge..Chelsea aren’t fantastic at home