Mikel Arteta has blamed the pitch at Turf Moor for Arsenal’s goalless draw.
“The conditions were difficult. The grass was this long. They didn’t put any water on it and obviously that is not a very helpful thing to play football,” Arteta said after the goalless draw.
“Absolutely [I expected it]. I didn’t water the pitch yesterday at the training ground so… I was expecting it but that doesn’t make it easier to play the game. It’s their game. They do really well what they do.
“It’s their strength, you’re allowed to do it, so we have to adapt. We adapted really well in some moments and in some others it wasn’t the grass. It’s the quality and what they do they do really well and we could not cope with that in the right way.
“We need more consistency, and with the ball. We were fantastic in some moments but we were so sloppy and put ourselves in big trouble with a lot of unnecessary situations and we have to improve a lot.”
“After 20 to 25 minutes, we started to concede a lot of unnecessary free kicks, throw ins, corners and when that happens you can’t find any continuity in your play and that’s not the game we want to play,” Arteta said.
