Mikel Arteta is set to face the press after Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Sporting CP in Lisbon
Arsenal started the game well with Jakub Kiwior displaying his composure and good passing. The Gunners took the lead as William Saliba rose highest from a Fabio Vieira corner and headed past Adan. Yet just 10 minutes later the hosts responded with a corner of their own and Goncalo Inacio headed past a stranded Matt Turner.
Sporting came out the better side in the second half and found the lead 10 minutes in. Marcus Edwards was involved again, reversing a pass to Goncalves whose strike was parried by Turner into the path of Paulinho.
Yet the drama continued around five minutes later as a Granit Xhaka cross deflected off Jeremiah St Juste and spun past Adan. A crazy equaliser, but one the Gunners desperately needed at the time.
Both teams had chances to win the game but ultimately couldn’t take them. Arsenal might be the happier of the two being able to take a draw back to north London with Sporting CP set to miss captain Sebastian Coates and Hidesama Morita through suspension
Kaya Kaynak is in place to hear from Mikel Arteta at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.
Really happy with him. I think he deserves more minutes than he’s had in the last two months. You saw tonight he was probably our most dangerous player. He’s a player that I absolutely love.
It’s true that it’s something that we must improve massively if we want to keep winning games.
In this competition if you want to go through you have to go through difficult moments. We’re still alive and hopefully we’ll play better at the Emirates.
I don’t know what it was. It happens in a split second. For sure in that second somebody can’t have a free header.
When you concede two poor goals like we did tonight away from home in Europe it’s very difficult to get a positive result. We gave too many simple balls away and gave them hope and capacity to have those transition moments. We lost a bit of threat today with the four players we’re missing in our front line. We need to defend our box much better.
A lot of meh displays from Arsenal tonight so tough to find any standouts but thought Saliba and Vieira did well. Not the best of debuts for Kiwior, while Turner still has a bit of convincing to do between the sticks.