Disappointed in the performance, disappointed in the result.
After a night’s sleep, however, I do think part of it is that I had built up this narrative in my mind about what would happen - this was the night we would take control of the title race, slap Liverpool around, show that we were champions elect, etc. I’d created my own narrative but without really considering the reality which is that we were playing in a monsoon, were pretty leggy at the end of a brutal festive period, and were playing a team with a lot of good players and a smart manager who knew how to exploit some of our weaknesses under those conditions, especially the fact that our CF cannot receive the ball to feet and keep it.
We still should have found a way to win the game. I don’t actually often have huge complaints with Arteta’s team selection and use of subs but I really do think he just got it completely wrong this match. It was a match for Merino up front, if not from the start then definitely as a sub.
Just catching-up on news after a football-free day. That was class by Slot after the match. You can be certain that if the last word fell to Gary Neville’s incitement to violence then the Martinelli fracas would have been the headline today.
Slot played it down, Martinelli apologised, our poor performance yesterday was rightly today’s headline.
