Mikel Arteta has said Arsenal produced their best big game performance in Europe under his management despite defeat at Inter Milan.
Arsenal’s unbeaten run in this season’s Champions League came to an end at the San Siro, as Hakan Calhanoglu’s penalty earned Inter a 1-0 win.
The Gunners were left frustrated at that decision and a penalty appeal that was turned down at the opposite end. Arsenal dominated the possession (69%) against the Italian champions fired a huge 20 shots on goal, but were unable to find a route through Simeone Inzaghi’s side.
Arteta outlined his frustration at full-time but was keen to take the positives from an impressive overall performance.
“The worst thing of the night, for sure, is the result, because the performance, the attitude, the dominance that we showed against one of the best teams in Europe in this stadium, I haven’t seen it in all the other games that I’ve watched,” Arteta said at his post-match press conference.
“But the reality is the result and we participated in that because we had many situations that we can resolve much better in front of goal and score at least two goals and then extremely frustrated as well because there are two decisions that at the end marks the result and the course of the game.
“The concern tonight is the result and obviously in both boxes at the end we didn’t do what we have to do. When we didn’t, then someone else didn’t and that’s it. For sure, this is the way that I want to see my team. All the big games that we have in Europe by far this was the best one that we played in the last few years.
On the two penalty decisions, Arteta added: “I don’t understand [the decision], it’s just a deflection, there is no danger at all, you cannot react because you are very close but ok, they decide that is a penalty. But then if that’s a penalty then the one on Mikel Merino when he punches him in the head has to be 1000% a penalty and these are the margins in this game and it’s very very difficult to accept.”
