'"We Completely Dominated The Game" Claims Mikel Arteta After Aston Villa Loss

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has claimed that his team deserved to win the Premier League game on Saturday afternoon, saying they 'completely dominated.'

It's not been a good week for the Gunners, with their loss against Wolverhampton Wanderers being followed by the weekend's loss to Villa.

The north London side were without David Luiz and Bernd Leno for the game against Dean Smith's side, following their red cards in midweek, and it showed after just 90 seconds, with confusion at the back leading to Ollie Watkins goal.

Arteta's side did have the share of possession, keeping the ball for 67% of the game, and afterwards the manager claimed his side had dominated the game.

Arteta: "Really strong performance, we completely dominated the game, we dominated every department and should have won the game.”

— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) February 6, 2021

Dominating possession and dominating the game is not the same thing

— P1 (@hearmeoutW) February 6, 2021

huh???

— 🇸🇴🀄️ (@ZakKnowsBall) February 6, 2021

Did he watch the same game with the chances and shots Villa had at our goal? What drivel is he spouting. Be honest Arteta, no need to lie. Martinez and their defence were sold and comfortable all game. Holding and Gabriel were run all over the park ffs.

— Chris (@PieAFC87) February 6, 2021

The fanbase allows it aswell because they don’t have any standards

— michael dee (@michaeldeex) February 6, 2021

They had 3x the amount of shots on target. Honestly just accept we didn’t play well.

— Sk (@afcxmo) February 6, 2021

Same script week in week out. What matters is what we do with all the possession and to win we need to score goals.

— Arsenal Pakistan (@Arsenal_PAK) February 6, 2021

He is surely making fun of our emotions.

In reality we were really very poor, especially defensively. Furthermore, his tactical decision to play Willian on the right to change the momentum of the game.

— Azeem Khadam (@azeemkhadam) February 6, 2021

Whilst Arsenal did keep the ball for more of the match the rest of the stats didn't back up the former Manchester City assistant manager's prognosis.

The visitors had 14 shots to Villa's 12 whilst only three of their attempts were on target in comparison to the winner's eight.

According to the stats the quality of the Londoner's chances weren't as good as their opponents either, with Arsenal finishing with a lower xG on the day.

Arsenal took fourteen shots this afternoon, none of which were worth more than 0.12(xG).

— The xG Philosophy (@xGPhilosophy) February 6, 2021

Unlike in midweek, when Luiz's sending off changed the game, Villa couldn't blame the referee for being behind but there was still controversy.

Fans believed that Ezri Konsa should have been sent off in the second half, for a foul Bukayo Saka, whilst Alexandre Lacazette did look to have been fouled by Emi Martinez in the box during the game.

The loss means Arsenal are now four points behind Villa, who have two games in hand over them.

source https://www.sportbible.com/football/fails-we-completely-dominated-the-game-claims-mikel-arteta-after-villa-loss-20210206