[ad_1]
Mikel Arteta watched his Arsenal side reach the Europa League quarter-finals despite losing at home to 10-man Olympiakos before declaring they must improve in the next round or be eliminated.
The Gunners were defeated 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium when Youssef El-Arabi scored against Arsenal for the third consecutive game.
Remembered skipper Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed a series of good chances to end the tie, but a 3-1 win in Greece last week was enough to see Arteta’s side.
But the Spaniard warned his players that they would not delve further into the competition if they did not improve on their last performance in the Europa League.
When asked if they will be out if they play that bad in the next round, Arteta said: ‘Yes, because what we have to do, the way we are set up, the organization we have and the way we want to play, we have to be much more efficient, much simpler, much more cohesive as a team.
“Without that structure you are exposed when you lose the ball in really dangerous areas without opposition.
“ When you do that, and we also did that, we create one opportunity after another, but again, we want to be in the competition, and when you have four, five, six great opportunities in Europe, you have to eliminate them and then the tie is over.
Olympiakos made a good fist, coming back from a two-goal deficit in the home game, attacking Arsenal after the break and taking it cold.
It never really seemed to cause a bigger surprise, especially when defender Ousseynou Ba was sent off late after collecting two quick cautions.
Arteta pointed to Tottenham’s surprising elimination to Dinamo Zagreb, where their North London rivals lost 3-0 after extra time in Croatia, as an example that the Europa League is a tougher tournament to win than is believed. .
“It also shows the level of the opposition,” he said of Tottenham’s defeat.
‘People take it for granted that you play any opponent and you are going to go by the name of the club they represent. It is not like this. All the teams in Europe are really difficult to beat ”.
As Arsenal advanced, their performance left much to be desired, especially when it came to going blank in front of goal.
Aubameyang was the main culprit, as the forward from the starting lineup was eliminated for Sunday’s win over Spurs due to a violation of pre-match protocol.
Arteta said before the loss to Olympiakos that he had had positive conversations with his employer and that the incident was now in the past.
“I hope not,” he replied when asked if Aubameyang’s waste could have been the result of a hangover from the weekend incident.
‘We have moved on from that. He started the game today and we hope that when he plays he will perform at the level he can. ”
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
[ad_2]
