Arsenal were made to take risks following Oliver Giroud’s first-half sending off, says midfielder Mikel Arteta.
His comments come after Arsenal’s UEFA Champions League campaign got off to a disappointing start, losing 2-1 to Dinamo Zagreb on Wednesday night.
Speaking to the media post-match, Arteta explained that it was an uphill battle for the Gunners following the red card.
We were 1-0 down and we had 10 men.
We had to take risks by playing with three at the back, and we knew that we needed to score goals while still remaining strong at the back.
Giroud was sent off in the 40th minute with the Gunners already losing 1-0. The Croatian side doubled their lead in the 58th minute as Junior Fernandes headed home from a corner. Theo Walcott pulled a goal back for Arsenal, but Dinamo Zagreb held on for all three points and extend their unbeaten run to 42 games.
Arsene Wenger made six changes to the side that faced Stoke, but Arteta believes that the team should have performed better.
The manager said that he was going to make a few changes and I think that we were still good enough to compete with a Dinamo Zagreb side.
Arsenal will face Olympiacos in their next Champions League tie in Group F on September 29th, before facing Bayern Munich on October 20th. Group rivals Bayern got their campaign off to a perfect start, beating Olympiacos 3-0.
