Alex Iwobi and Petr Cech have both been giving their thoughts following Arsenal defeat to Manchester City at the weekend.
Heading to the Etihad Stadium on Sunday for the game, Arsenal fell to a three one defeat and Alexandre Lacazette’s goal being nothing more than a consolation.
Speaking to the Official Site as he met with the media following the game, a disappointed Iwobi explained that their final goal was a sucker punch a we harboured hope of a fightback.
‘We were pushing to get the equaliser but unfortunately the referee wasn`t able to see that it was offside. There`s nothing that you can do, we just have to move on to the next game.’
Having started relatively brightly, falling behind just ahead of the 20 minute mark wasn’t ideal either.
‘Maybe we weren`t composing ourselves like we were in the first 10 or 15 minutes. Man City are a very good team and you have to give credit to them, but I believe the result doesn`t show how well we did. We had an extra attacking player going forward but at the end of the day we set up very well to play against City and we were just unfortunate. Maybe if he`d started on the wing it would have been different, but it is what it is.’
As for Cech, he also felt we were unfortunate in the game with is not taking chances and having decisions go against us. Speaking specifically about the second and third goals, he said.
‘I can`t really comment on the penalty incident because I had the players running from a completely different angle to the referee. Suddenly I saw Sterling falling and the referee`s decision. At the moment, without seeing anything on the TV, I can`t really comment on that. The third goal, I was surprised when it went in because I thought Silva was far in front of everybody. But again, the referee has a better view than I did and you have to accept the decision. I think the referees have a difficult enough job. They need to make their decisions. If he got it right or wrong, I don`t know, but obviously the third goal made a difference because it took away the opportunity for us to find the equaliser.’
Reflecting on the game, he added.
‘I thought that at 2-1, when we just got back into the game, that we were in it. We had time to search for the equaliser but the third goal obviously made a huge difference. At 2-1 the game was going on and we had some good passages of play where we could have put them more under pressure and searched for the equaliser. At 3-1, it gave the advantage back to them. They are an experienced team with a lot of quality and they took advantage of that.’
Questioned on the gap between City and Arsenal, Cech felt the game had shown we could deal with them, but we just came up short once again.
‘We had passages of play where we matched them, controlled the ball and looked dangerous. But inevitably they have a huge quality up front and when they managed to find the right passes and the right movement, they created some opportunities. At 2-1, I thought that we were going to get something out of it.’
