Mikel Arteta backs Arsenal from Sporting Lisbon loss.
The Gunners were beaten 5-3 on penalties last night at the Emirates Stadium at the hands of Sporting.
After Granit Xhaka’s opener was cancelled out by Pedro Goncalves’ sensational long-range goal, the game was decided by a penalty shootout.
Arsenal also lost both Takehiro Tomiyasu and William Saliba to first-half injuries with Tomiyasu leaving the stadium on crutches.
Mikel Arteta was asked how disappointed he was with the result last night.
He believes that the focus will now shift on to winning the next 11 games in the Premier League.
Arteta replied: “Yes, a huge blow.
“We really wanted to go through in the competition and fight and go for it. Today we tried for 120 minutes and penalties and it wasn’t enough.
“Looking at ourselves it started difficult losing Tomi (Takehiro Tomiyasu) and (William) Saliba and that made it hard to manage the game because we only had a window to make the subs and a few players couldn’t play 90 minutes.
“We had another big two chances and didn’t win. At the end it came to the penalties and it’s a lottery and it didn’t go our way today.”
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