Arteta warns Tottenham UEL exit should be wake-up call for Arsenal
Mikel Arteta has warned his Arsenal side they will be out of the Europa League if they repeat their performance against Olympiacos – and Tottenham’s defeat to Dinamo Zagreb highlights how no one can be underestimated.
Arsenal made it through to the quarter-finals of the Europa League, despite losing 1-0 at home to Olympiacos.
Youssef El-Arabi scored the only goal of the game, but the Gunners went through thanks to their 3-1 win in Athens last week.
Quarter-final place: secured ✅
🏆 #UEL
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) March 18, 2021
Tottenham, however, were dumped out of the competition after losing 3-0 in Dinamo Zagreb – and Arteta says that is warning for everyone.
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“It shows as well the level of the opposition,” he said.
“People take for granted that you play against any opponent and you’re going to be through because of the name of the club they represent. It’s not like that. Every team in Europe is really difficult to beat.”
Asked if his side can’t afford to perform as poorly as they did against Olympiacos, Arteta said: “Yes.
“Because what we have to do, the way we are setup, the organisation we have and the way we want to play, we have to be much more efficient, much more simple, much more cohesive as a team.
🗣 “Today we were nowhere near the level that we have set ourselves. In particular, when we had possession of the ball.”
Read every word from @m8arteta’s post-match interview 👇
🏆 #UEL
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) March 18, 2021
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“Without that structure you are exposed when you lose the ball in really dangerous areas without any opposition.
“When you do that, and we did that as well where we created chance after chance, but again, as you mentioned we want to be in the competition, and when you have four, five, six big chances in Europe you have to put them away and then the tie is over.”