The manager of Arsenal, Mikel Arteta has stressed that the title race is not over for him and his team as he admitted that his team played poorly in the second half of the game against Aston Villa.
On Sunday, April 14, Arsenal hosted Aston Villa at the Emirates Stadium and lost the game 2-0 within three minutes. The first goal came in the 84th minute courtesy of Leon Bailey’s strike, and the second goal came in the 87th minute courtesy of Ollie Watkins.
After the game, Mikel Arteta told Sky Sports that his team had two different halves and the first half was his team’s best.
“Two very different performances. The first half was superb, one of the best halves we have played against a top team. It should have been three or four – or more”, Mikel Arteta said.
“We didn’t put that score line up and didn’t reflect that second half. We lacked momentum. We didn’t have the flow we had in the first half and then we conceded two very, very poor goals.
“Credit to them, in the second half we were a bit unprecise with the ball, we weren’t able to do what we did in the first half. In the end, we lost it so we have to congratulate them on the points.”
The 2-0 defeat against Aston Villa has pushed Arsenal to the second spot on the league table, two points below first-placed Manchester City.
Due to the unprecedented defeat on Sunday which placed City in the driving seat of the title race, some pundits argued that it will be almost impossible for the Gunners to return to the top of the league table.
In response to that, Arteta said: “If one result is going to do that then we are not strong enough. That’s very simple.
“We had one of the best performances that we’ve had all season in the first half against a really good team.”
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