Arsenal’s attempts to wind down their season by the end of January look on course as Mikel Arteta’s side crashed out of the FA Cup to 10-man Manchester United.
Following Tuesday’s humbling at home to Newcastle in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg, the Gunners continued their downward spiral, creating a slew of half-chances only to squander them in increasingly exasperating ways. From the outside, it appears confidence has drained from the squad.
Ruben Amorim’s side looked equally eager to make things difficult for themselves, but Arsenal were determined to outdo them, ultimately, making the evening as painful as possible for the freezing home crowd.
Diogo Dalot’s red card in the 61st minute should have shifted the game in Arsenal’s favour, and for a brief moment, it looked like it might. Gabriel’s strike, cancelling out Bruno Fernandes’ opener, gave a glimmer of hope, but Martin Odegaard’s missed penalty 10 minutes later drained the energy from the stadium. What followed was a series of missed chances, dragging a laboured performance through extra time.
A defeat on penalties felt inevitable. When Havertz missed, all eyes turned to David Raya to salvage the situation. That he didn’t get close to any of United’s five spot-kicks was a fitting end to a dismal night.
“It’s unbelievable,” reflected Arteta. “Obviously, you measure the performance and what we did in relation to the position, you know, you deserve to win the game by a mile.
“But the reality is we are out and the only thing that’s going to be judged is that, but internally I can’t.”
Compounding a miserable evening, Arsenal lost Gabriel Jesus to a concerning knee injury and also had to sub off both Jurrien Timber and Jorginho with apparent problems. With games every three days, the squad is looking threadbare. It’ll be interesting to see if the club is now forced to enter the transfer market.
For now, Arteta’s focus is on the players at his disposal who clearly need some love.
“I love my players. I love our team and I love how good they are and what they do because in 1000 games, you should loose one and probably it was this one,” said the Spaniard.
“You have to understand this as well, it’s part of our industry, our game and move on because you don’t have time to do that because on Wednesday we have a massive one [against Sp*rs].”
On penalties deciding the game, he added: “When you go to penalties you know that it’s a flick of the coin and it can go either way.”
“It’s an incredible team. I’m so proud of my players. I love my players and I cannot be prouder because it’s very difficult to demand something else than the performance that they put in there.
“The ball has to go in the net and then you have to batter the opponent, that’s the reality.”
