Mikel Arteta has urged his team to approach the weekend's game against Crystal Palace like a final
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has urged his team to move on from the UEFA Europa League defeat to Sporting Lisbon as soon as possible and focus on the Premier League title race.
Arsenal were knocked out of the UEL at the round of 16 stage, after a penalty shootout loss to Sporting CP on Thursday night.
Arsenal lose to Sporting on penalties
A Gabriel Martinelli penalty miss was the ultimate decider in the tie after Pedro Goncalves’ 46-yard screamer took the tie to extra-time.
After the match, Arteta was keen to move on to Arsenal’s next task, in the Premier League against Crystal Palace.
Speaking after the game, Arteta said his team needed to do some introspection and then forge ahead to tackle the game against Crystal Palace which he dubbed a final.
Speaking to BTSport after the game, Arteta said, "We just have to look at ourselves and why we were not good enough to go through."
“We congratulate Sporting, and now we have 11 games. Our next game with Palace is a final.” Arteta charges Gunners to beat Palace
Arteta wants to see improvements against Crystal Palace
Arteta also charged his Arsenal team to be better against Crystal Palace than they were against Sporting CP “Every work we do right now has to be towards Palace and we have to be better than in this game,” he concluded.
Despite the disappointing loss, Arsenal will be confident that they can put up a performance against Crystal Palace, especially considering their London derby form this season.
They have played nine derbies and won eight of them, failing to win only in their controversial 1-1 draw against Brentford.
The best course of action for the Gunners will be to lick their wounds and return to their last hope for silverware this season, the Premier League, knowing that they do not have to worry about European excursions until next season, hopefully in the UEFA Champions League.
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