Ange Postecoglou couldn’t hide his disappointment after our 2-1 derby defeat at Arsenal in the Premier League on Wednesday evening.
Ange described the display as ‘nowhere near good enough’ after goals from Gabriel (40 minutes) - credited as an own goal as his header from a corner glanced home off Dominic Solanke - and Leandro Trossard (44 minutes) cancelled out Heung-Min Son’s 25th-minute opener at the Emirates.
We came closest to levelling in added time when Pedro Porro smacked an effort against the post from an acute angle. However, the home side had the better of the stats, including forcing us to defend 10 corners across the 95 minutes.
Speaking on our Review Show from the Emirates, Ange gave us his reflections on the performance: “Not great, especially the first half was nowhere near the levels we need to be and we want to be. We were way too passive with and without the ball and allowed Arsenal to control the game. We got ourselves ahead, but the way we went about it wasn’t really the intent we want to have as a football team. The second half was a little better, but nowhere near good enough.”
On initially defending Arsenal’s set-pieces well, taking the lead - but then conceding the equaliser from a corner...
“Yes, and if you are giving away so many, they are going to hurt you at some point. I think the one they did score from wasn’t a corner, but those are the kind of things that are going against us at the moment. Irrespective of that, we’ve got to be better than that, especially in those first 45 minutes.”
On his disappointment...
“Look, we’ve got no choice but to get up tomorrow and tackle the task ahead of us. Our league form is unacceptable, our results are unacceptable, and it needs to change.”