Arteta slams penalty calls in loss to Inter Milan, says “I don’t understand the decision”
Hakan Calhanoglu’s penalty and an organised defensive display gave Inter a hard-fought victory over Arsenal, their first Champions League defeat of the season.
Following a humiliating 1-3 loss to Manchester City in a Premier League match on Sunday, Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger was left to rue a lack of luck.
“I felt that we started well and after the bad spell for 20 minutes in the first half, we came back in the second half. We were always in the game and I believe honestly we were really unlucky. City are strong enough not to need that [help] and it’s very difficult to swallow today,” Wenger told Arsenal.com.
Arsenal striker Alex Lacazette struck in the 65th minute to reduce some deficit for the Gunners. However, City appeared resilient and concluded the game with three goals, thanks to Kevin De Bruyne (19′), Sergio Agüero (50′) and Gabriel Jesus (74′).
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“We looked dangerous. In the first half every time we managed to get in their half, we created dangerous situations and overall yes it’s disappointing… on top of that I felt that sometimes in our final ball we lacked a bit of touch or accuracy and we could not transform enough situations we had to score,” the Gunners’ boss added.
Wenger said his team needed to be ‘solid’ at Manchester for a better result. “We knew that we had to survive some moments where they had the ball and overall I felt that was alright, but we respected them a little bit too much maybe for 25 minutes in the first half and then the second half when we came out we looked always convincingly dangerous.”
Meanwhile, the 68-year-old French football manager was of praise for the France striker Lacazette, who displayed impressive grit during tough times.
“Yes, he was superb and when he came on he gave us another option. But even in the first half, I felt that it was more a case of providing better support up front. That was our problem,” he added.
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