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Football London
Football London
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Art De Roche

Every word Mikel Arteta just said on Torreira injury, Aubameyang red card, VAR, Crystal Palace

You had control of the match. How unhappy were you with Palace goal and the sending off?

"I was very pleased with the way we started, the way we dominated the first half - things I saw that we worked on in training and the way they executed them.

"But obviously after the break we knew they were going to push and get more bodies forward and put us under more pressure. We started to give away a lot of free kicks - something we have to try to avoid in this ground and then we switched off. For the goal we completely switched off. We allowed them to put the cross in, we turned and conceded a deflection and I'm very disappointed with that.

Mikel Arteta's full press conference after Palace draw

"After that, I must say we reacted really well after conceding and after Auba's red card, we reacted even better in my opinion."

What did you think of the sending off?

"I just watched it and it looked nasty to be fair. Knowing Auba, there was no intention to make sure a tackle, hopefully he (Max Meyer) hasn't been injured and we are sorry for that (the tackle) but they made a decision and we have to accept it."

With 10 men you were pushing for the win and you were close weren't you?

"That's what I want to see from my team. Their reaction was really positive, they wanted to win the game, they went for it, we had three or four really good situations.

"We created the best chance with Nicolas and Lacazette and we were unlucky not to win the game."

How tough will missing Aubameyang be for the next three games?

"That's a massive blow, you know how important he is for the team and maybe we're going to lose him for a couple of games."

Were you surprised how easily Palace were able to get back in the game?

"It's a credit to them. It wasn't that easy in the first half. Maybe in the second half when they started to change a few bits they made it a bit more difficult and we have to learn to get out of these positions. But we started to commit a lot of fouls as well and everything was stop-start which isn't the type of game that suits us at the moment. There were a lot of things that I was pleased with."

Did losing Lucas Torreira have a big impact?

"Well, when Matteo came on he was really good but obviously he (Torreira) has been in good form and given us a lot but I had to get him off because he wasn't feeling good."

Do you know what sort of injury he's got?

"It's a muscle injury, we will have to assess it with the doctors tomorrow or the day after then we will know more."

Switching off at set pieces has happened before you arrived, how do you cut that out. Is it a mental issue?

"At this level in the Premier League, you suffer for two-five seconds and concede a goal straight away. So, I don't know, I'm going to have to find a way to avoid those situations, it happened today and it cost us two points."

What is your view on VAR?

"I think we'll get to the point that we all want. It's still a process where it's true, sometimes it breaks everything up but for some big decisions, it's very important to have it. It's in place at the moment and we have to respect the decision, hopefully they are going to make more positive than negative decisions."

 
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