Arteta to his players: 'If you have courage, you have big balls'

To say that Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta was furious is maybe an understatement. The Reds swept away the Gunners in the Round 30 of the Premier League 3-0, but in reality, it could have been a lot more, and the Spaniard knows that.

In fact, he was so upset with his players' performances, that he issued an official apology to all Arsenal fans, claiming that the Reds deserved the victory and that this was one of the worst performances since he is the coach.

„Liverpool completely deserved to win the game, probably by a bigger margin. They were better in every department. We need to apologize to our people, to our fans. I have to apologize for what we’ve done on that pitch. I am fully responsible. They were much better than us in every department. They won every duel, every second ball, every challenge. It was one of the worst performances of my time at Arsenal. I don’t have to use any excuses, that we don’t have five, six players – it’s not about that. I don’t care who was missing. I hate excuses. They were much better than us in every single department. The standard has to be higher for this football club and my job is to get them to perform at that level“ said Arteta.

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If there were any remote chances of trying to secure the Europa League place for next season, it’s certainly out of the question now. The only way to play in Europe next season would be to win in the Europa League this season, and the Gunners are playing in the quarterfinals on Thursday against Sparta Prague, who already knocked out Rangers and Leicester. After this display against Liverpool, Arteta challenged his players to show courage on Thursday.

„It’s a challenge and challenge brings opportunity. In football you have the opportunity a few days later, if you have courage, you have big balls. If you represent a club like this you have to stand up in the next game and take it. We gave every ball away. We could not put three passes together. It was too many simple things not done right. The basics were not done right and when you do that against this level of opponent, you get punished as we have. At the moment I’m in shock because I did not expect that the way the team train, the way the team tries, this happened. That’s the reality“ said Arteta.