Mikel Arteta Reacts As Arsenal’s Title Hopes Suffer Huge Blow After Draw at Everton
- Arsenal’s Premier League title hopes suffered a massive blow after their 1-1 draw away against Everton
- Ilman Ndiaye’s penalty cancelled out Leandro Trossard’s strike to even the points in the early kickoff
- Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has offered his thoughts on the controversial afternoon at Goodison Park
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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta reacted after his team's title ambitions suffered a massive blow with a 1-1 draw against Everton in the Premier League’s lunchtime kickoff.
The Gunners travelled to the Goodison Park for the final time, and like most top teams recently, including Liverpool and Manchester United, they have come out with a draw.
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Belgian forward Leandro Trossard, who also scored at the Goodison Park last season, gave Arsenal the lead in the 34th and ended the first half with the away team in a 1-0 deserved lead at halftime, as they outplayed their opponents.
Arteta made two halftime substitutions, with Bukayo Saka replacing Ethan Nwaneri and Gabriel Martinelli replacing Raheem Sterling, who provided the assist for the first goal.
Everton restored parity in the 49th minute through Ilman Ndiaye after Myles Lewis-Skelly fouled Harrison Jack Harrison and Darren England pointed to the spot.
According to PL Match Centre, the video assistant referee confirmed the referee's call of a penalty after contact deemed to be sufficient for a penalty and inside the area.
Arteta reacts to Arsenal's draw
A furious Mikel Arteta headed to the post-match conference, and one of his main talking points was that the penalty given against his team should not have been awarded.
He admitted he was unhappy with the result, despite acknowledging that Everton away was a difficult place to play. He added that the penalty changed everything.
“Especially with the result, I'm very unhappy. A tough place to come, a team that is very physical, very direct. If you don't deal with the direct play constantly well, you'd never get any momentum, very difficult,” he told TNT Sports.
"So when I had to finally have more control and from there to generate more chances, the second half started, and we gave many balls away, and when we dealt with that, then the decision of the penalty came.”
“For me, it is never a penalty, but I'll take it from there,” he said about the penalty against his team. It was really bad because the game had just started in the second half.
“You wanted to settle and generate some momentum, especially going ahead because they were starting to be more aggressive, and it made it really different.”
Source: Getty Images
The result means the Gunners have 62 points, 11 points behind league leaders Liverpool, who play Fulham away on Sunday and could extend the lead to 14 points, moving the Reds closer to the title.
Up next for the Gunners is a UEFA Champions League quarter-final match against 15-time champions Real Madrid at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday.
Madrid players escape ban before Arsenal
Legit.ng previously reported that Real Madrid players escaped ban before facing Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-final, generating controversy on social media.
Antonio Rudiger and Kylian Mbappe were under investigation following controversial gestures against Atletico Madrid in the round of 16, but only the German was fined.
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Source: Legit.ng
