BRAMALL LANE — Mikel Arteta praised Arsenal’s commitment after Dani Ceballos’ late goal booked their place in the FA Cup semi-finals next month.
The Spanish substitute scored in injury time to defeat Sheffield United after David McGoldrick’s equaliser had pegged them back.
But rather than concede again as happened in the Premier League defeat at Brighton eight days before, the Gunners showed mettle to keep alive their hopes of lifting a trophy this season.
They may be languishing in ninth place in the league, but they have a semi-final at Wembley to look forward to in three weeks, and Arteta was delighted to see his players answer some of their critics.
Dani Ceballos comes up BIG for Arsenal ????
An injury-time winner to send Mikel Arteta's side into the #EmiratesFACup semi-final! pic.twitter.com/E7ai4ryZXU
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) June 28, 2020
“I am very pleased with the result as this is a difficult place to come,” said the Gunners manager.
“After conceding so late, it is not easy to react like that mentally. We have to bear in mind that we have played four away games. No other team has done that.
“I never fault the effort of the players but there are still big areas to improve.
“But the attitude and commitment of every single player pleased me. There were really good moments where they did what I asked and the way we dealt with Sheffield’s play.
“Winning gives you a bit of credit and a bit of encouragement that you are doing the right things. Hopefully we can have now some momentum.”
For Chris Wilder, there were better moments after three league games without a win since lockdown, but good fortune eluded his Sheffield United side with two disallowed goals.
“I thought we were the dominant team second half,” he said. “They had to defend for their lives at times.
“We got to 1-1 and thought it was our turn to step on the gas. Then a couple of bad decisions, we give the ball away cheaply, the ball’s in the back of our net and we’re out of the cup.
“But the main ingredients to win a game of football were back. We had that in bundles today. I’m just not happy we’ve missed the opportunity to get through to a semi-final.”
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2VpoAOv
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