We lacked purpose: Arteta reacts to defeat to Porto

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has reacted to his side’s defeat to Porto in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

The Gunners put up an impressive form but let a lone goal slip in the second giving the Portuguese side an edge ahead of the second leg.

In a post-match statement, Arteta said lacked purpose despite dominating the game.

When asked if he was surprised by Arsenal’s loss, Arteta said:

“No, obviously we’re very disappointed by the way we gave the game away at the end, and not managing that situation well enough, and you get punished in the Champions League – if you cannot win it, you don’t lose it. We really dominated the game, but we lacked purpose, especially in the first half to have much more aggression, to break lines, to play forward, to generate much more threat in their backline. In the second half, there were much better things, and we generated a lot of situations without really creating much from it, but we’ll learn from it. Now it’s clear, it’s half-time. If you want to be in the quarter-finals, you have to beat your opponent, that’s clear, and that will be the purpose and the plan with all our supporters together to do it.”