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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has offered a blunt assessment of the club’s performance, declaring his team still has “a lot to learn” despite grinding out a 2–1 Champions League victory away to Slavia Prague on Wednesday, November 4.
The Premier League champions were far from clinical in the Czech Republic, though early goals from Noni Madueke and Viktor Gyökeres, who struck just past the 30-minute mark, appeared to put the visitors in total control.
However, a sloppy second-half display allowed Slavia back into the contest, culminating in a 90th-minute goal from Wiktor Nowak that ensured a nervous finish for the Gunners.
Speaking to TNT Sports post-match, Arteta refused to paper over the cracks of an unconvincing second half.
“Always we need to value winning away in the Champions League—it is extremely difficult,” Arteta said. “Two very different halves. We should have had three or four goals in the first half, but we didn’t do it. Right at the start of the second half we were on the back foot, very sloppy and gave balls away. Then we had to suffer. A lot to learn.”
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Defending his decision to rotate the squad, the Arsenal boss insisted he had no regrets despite the drop in standards after the break.
“We should have scored more in the first half and if we didn’t do that we had to go and do that in the second half,” he added. “We made six changes but we know the quality of the players we have. Whether we were lacking something I don’t know, but I would have done the same thing again. I value what the team has done now—that is 11 away games we played.”
