The way in which this defeat occurred was particularly hard to take for a group that their coach had called on to show impeccable fighting spirit. Before the match, Arteta had told supporters: “Bring your lunch, bring your dinner”, in order to create a fortress atmosphere, but the players were unable to translate this intensity onto the pitch. The coach did not mince his words when describing the emotional repercussions of this result in the locker room.
“It’s a big blow,” Arteta admitted. “That’s what I told the boys. But now it’s about how we will react, because the match continues. We will have to show great spirit, a lot of combativeness, and have a very clear approach. No gray area. It’s all or nothing. We have to be very, very, very strong and determined to approach this match differently than we did today, especially when the match does not go in our favor. »
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