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Mikel Arteta is building a reputation as a cup specialist, but admitted that the excitement of winning at Anfield waned when news of the Carabao Cup quarter-final draw broke.
“I was celebrating in the locker room when I heard it was Manchester City next,” said the Arsenal manager. “Obviously, it is a team that I know very well and we have a difficult game in store.”
Arsenal won on penalties after 90 minutes without goals against Liverpool, something else Arteta seems to organize well. “We practice shooting penalties in shootouts,” he said, “but it all depends on how quiet the player is at night.
“When I saw Ainsley Maitland-Niles’s body language as he got closer to shoot, I thought he might be too calm, but he saved the shot and everything was fine.”
Arteta praised goalkeeper Bernd Leno, as did Jürgen Klopp, but also Bukayo Saka, recently called up by Gareth Southgate for the England squad. “I am very happy for him, he is an incredible talent and he deserves his chance.”
Klopp praised the young players on his team, but also congratulated Leno, who kept Arsenal in the game. “We could have been more clinical, but he played very well and I told him so,” said the Liverpool manager. “We kept him busy in the second half, we probably prepared him for the penalty shoot-out.”
When asked if he would have preferred to win this game or Monday’s Premier League match, Klopp said he would have liked to win both. “But we already have the three points from Monday, so I’m happy with that.
“Considering that those youngsters only had two days to train together, I think we did very well against Arsenal. We only lost on penalties, it would have been a draw in a league game and against Arsenal that is a good result. Particularly because we had the best chances in the game. We probably did enough to deserve to win, but we didn’t, and you have to accept it. I was satisfied with the quality we showed, but tonight it just didn’t work out. I can’t be completely happy that we lost, but I liked a lot of parts of our game. “
Klopp seemed to hint that Xherdan Shaqiri could be leaving Anfield after the Swiss international was left out of the team. “It’s the time of year when some things happen in the background and we have to react sometimes and that’s what we did,” Klopp said.
