Mikel Arteta admits he got Arsenal team selection wrong in Villarreal defeat

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has admitted that he got his team selection wrong for Thursday night’s Europa League semi-final first leg loss at Villarreal, and insists a 2-1 defeat was a good result in the circumstances because it gives the Gunners a lifeline in the second leg at home.

With Alexandre Lacazette injured, Arteta bizarrely also opted to leave Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the bench and chose to line up without a recognised striker. Instead, Emile Smith Rowe was deployed in a false nine role.

But Arsenal lacked an attacking threat, were 2-0 down inside the first half hour and then played most of the second half with 10 players after Dani Ceballos was sent off. It was only a Nicolas Pepe penalty with just under 20 minutes left that ensured the night wasn’t a total disaster.

“Obviously when you lose you always get it wrong,” Arteta said of his team selection, via Arsenal.com, although he insisted it was conceding early that derailed the plan and argued that playing with multiple strikers in previous games hasn’t necessarily produced goals.

“We played with three strikers and we didn't score many times in the season, so it's a decision that I made and that's it.

“One of the main reasons [the false nine system] was that after conceding the goal, we disorganised ourselves. In the high press we were really stretched and we didn't have the right people in the right spaces and then we were open.

“We didn't give ourselves the chance even to get set in the final third to do what we wanted to do, because we were imprecise on the ball as well. Overall, it was not the best. We started the second half with the same players in a completely different way.”

Arteta said that the first goal came as a ‘big shock’ and after also conceding from a set piece, it took the break at half-time for his players to settle down and regroup.

"After that break, we reset, we reorganised, we talked about a few things and then we were a different team in the second half,” he commented.

“Obviously we are disappointed that we lost the game, because it's not the result that we wanted to take from the game. But I think we have to take it because in the tie we are alive.”

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