Mikel Arteta and Wojciech Szczesny gave their thoughts on the 2-0 defeat to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Read what they had to say:
ARTETA
on a difficult night…
We played against one of the top sides in one of the most difficult stadiums in Europe - we knew that from the start. They put us under a lot of pressure and we conceded a goal with just 20 seconds to go in the first half from our throw-in on the other end of the pitch. After you go 1-0 down here it's very difficult. They were very good on the break and we didn't perform well enough tonight.
on Dortmund grabbing the initiative…
They've got a lot of pace and put us under a lot of pressure up front. We gave the ball away too many times in our own half. They took the game where they wanted to take it and that's disappointing for us.
on forgetting about this defeat…
Absolutely, we have a big game coming up away to Aston Villa in four days. We've got to be ready because it's going to be a tough one.
SZCZESNY
on the performance...
It wasn’t good. We lost two goals and it was probably lucky that we didn’t concede more. They counter-attacked us very well. On another day they probably could have finished more [chances] so it was very disappointing.
on whether the fast tempo was a surprise…
That’s no surprise in the Champions League. You get to play against the best teams in Europe. You expect them to play at this pace. We didn’t do it well enough so now we need to improve for the second game.
on how confident he is about progressing…
We’ve got six games to play. We lost the first one, which was an important one, but we’ve got to pick ourselves up and get some momentum over the next couple of games at home, and hopefully put ourselves in the mix.
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