We came to win: Arteta on Arsenal’s defeat at Liverpool | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta insisted that Arsenal came to Anfield to win rather than frustrate after a narrow 1-0 defeat to Liverpool, settled only by a stunning late free kick from Dominik Szoboszlai.

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Arteta was forced into an early reshuffle after William Saliba failed to recover from an ankle problem picked up in the warm-up. The French defender tried to continue but was withdrawn within minutes, handing Cristhian Mosquera an unexpected Premier League debut.

“He twisted his ankle during the warm-up, and he came in and he said he believed that he could carry on and play, but straight away in the first two actions I could see that he couldn’t cope, and we had to get him out unfortunately,” Arteta said.

“But thank God we had Mosquera, which we put in for the first time in the Premier League. His debut, not expecting it at Anfield, and I think he was really, really good.”

Arsenal matched Liverpool for much of the contest, restricting the hosts to few clear chances until Szoboszlai struck from 30 yards in the 83rd minute.

Arteta dismissed suggestions that his side had been overly cautious as Sky Sports did their best to build a narrative that other pundits have been only too happy to pick up and run with, despite what the stats show.

“We didn’t do our gameplan to frustrate them; we did it to win it,” Arteta said.

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“I think we elevated the game and the dominance to a point that they had to raise it. They did, especially from the 60-78th minute, when then you could see that there were no margins in the game.

“When that happens, the game is going to be decided in two ways. One, with an individual error, and two, with a magic moment. Szoboszlai created a moment that was incredible, that has won the game, and that was the difference, nothing else.”

Without Martin Ødegaard and Kai Havertz, Arteta turned to Mikel Merino in midfield, a decision he defended afterwards. “That’s what we had. Martin Odegaard was injured, Kai cannot play, Merino is a player that is incredible with what he did there. We played with three attacking players, two attacking full-backs and after the game, I think it’s too easy to say that [the midfield was too conservative].”

On Declan Rice’s positioning, Arteta added: “We believed it was the best thing [to do], especially the way we had to attack and the way they pressed him to get him in this position.”

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Pressed again on Saliba, Arteta admitted concern. “I am because you cannot play a game of that stature. After you tried [to], that means that there is something wrong.”

Explaining Liverpool’s late control, he said: “Because this is Anfield and at some point, it’s going to change. You cannot dominate Anfield for 95 minutes and it changed in various ways, especially because we didn’t make the right decision when our keeper got the ball in their hands, we started to rush it, the turnovers, we didn’t manage them so well so we could never glide as a team.

“They are going to create those moments without really creating any situations of danger.”

Defeat ended Arsenal’s unbeaten start to the season, but Arteta left Anfield insisting his side had shown the ambition to compete and that the game had been decided only by “a magic moment”. Hard to disagree.