Arsenal were forced to settle for just a point at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, following a tightly contested 1-1 draw with Chelsea.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta addressed the media after the final whistle, speaking about the result and the team’s performance and providing updates on the squad’s fitness—including William Saliba, who missed out late after picking up a knock in training.
On whether Arsenal was deserving of three points, he said, “First of all, I think it was a proper London derby. It was really tense, and you could sense from the beginning that every duel, every action, had something on it. Two teams very willing to win, and not much football. A lot of stops, free kicks, and yellow cards, so not a lot of fluidity. But obviously after the sending-off of [Moises] Caicedo, we wanted to settle the game.”
“We didn’t manage to do that—we had four more yellow cards, and those players were obviously targeted in order to even the game in terms of numbers.
And at halftime we said, “Let’s push it now, get what we have to do,” and we were very clear on our intention and how we were going to dominate the game in the first action. Long ball, free kick, corner, and we concede from a set piece.
So then, the momentum shifted, and ultimately the team had to react to that. We managed to get some good spells without having too much momentum, and we scored a great goal, and after that, we had two or three big chances but lacked certain detail, especially in the manner we attacked and especially in certain positions. Robert [Sanchez] had the ball in his hands.”
On what the defenders can take away from this game, he added: “It’s been a big week, starting with the derby, with how emotional and the intention we had to win it, then playing Bayern Munich three days later. We lost players in those games, and today, for example, we had to play a partnership we hadn’t played before in a really difficult match.
The captain is still not here, the No. 9 is still not here, Kai [Havertz] is still not here, and we lost Leo [Trossard] in midweek as well. But the team had to react to that, and overall it’s been a really positive week, because the difficulty has been immense, but I have this feeling that today we should’ve won the game, and we haven’t. That’s a learning point for me.”
