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.
Arsenal returned from the international break in style with two wins from two games and Mikel Arteta urged his side to build on that momentum going into a busy winter schedule, starting with West Ham United on Saturday. After drawing away to Chelsea before the last international break, Arsenal Returned with two high-scoring wins against Nottingham Forest and Sporting CP this week.
Arsenal’s attention now switches to West Ham United at the London Stadium and the boss is eager to keep the confidence high as Arsenal head into their third London derby of the campaign.
“Obviously winning lifts the energy and the confidence up. They were two big wins for us and now it’s about consistency, getting that momentum we are in and taking it even further against a really good opponent tomorrow and trying to replicate the performance to win the game,” Mikel said in his pre-match press conference.
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The games are coming thick and fast in the next six weeks. The Spaniard believes the momentum is building but with games taking place almost every three days, the focus is on keeping standards high. “It doesn’t matter what you did yesterday, it’s about the next days, the next performance. Are you able to sustain high-level performance throughout the game as well because of how competitive every opponent is right now, and that’s what we will try to do tomorrow,” he added.
Despite a tricky period before the international break, Mikel hailed Arsenal’s character and how they’ve been able to turn that into victories since the return of domestic football. “I don’t link character to winning. This team showed unbelievable character against Inter and we lost, and showed unbelievable character against Chelsea, Arsenal were the better team, but we didn’t manage to win. Same players, same intentions, being more efficient and winning matches, that’s the difference,” he concluded.
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