Cech – We’re down but not out
Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech spoke to the media after the north London side’s 3-2 loss to Manchester United on Sunday afternoon.
The Gunners travelled to the north West as favourites, in hope of gaining three points to close in on league leaders Leicester City. Disappointment arose quickly, however, with Marcus Rashford scoring a quick brace in the first-half, putting the hosts 2-0 up and giving the teenager a dream Premier League debut.
Arsenal pegged back shortly after through a Danny Welbeck header from a wonderfully lofted Mesut Ozil free-kick, meaning the Red Devils went into the break as leaders.
United put themselves 3-1 up shortly after the two teams returned from the break, with Ander Herrera’s deflected effort flying beyond Cech. Arsenal’s German sensation Ozil scuffed a shot beyond David de Gea to give the visitors some hope but failed to create enough chances and ultimately lost three vital points.
Speaking after full-time, Cech claimed, as reported by the club’s official website, that the home side punished Arsenal’s mistakes.
Man United away is a big game. They fight to have a chance to enter the top four, so we knew it was going to be a difficult game. In a game like this, you can make mistakes and we were punished for them. Every time we made a mistake at the back, they [profited]. The third goal was a lucky bounce for them and I thought it was decisive, because if we could have come back to 2-2 in the second half, we would have had a chance to win the game. At 3-1 down, you try to get one back as soon as possible, which we managed to do. But we didn’t create enough to score in the last 10 minutes.
The 33-year-old quashed talk that the north London club are out of the title race, however.
We still have a chance, so we will go for it until the last minute. This was a big disappointment for us and is a step back after last week, where we managed to overcome a deficit against Leicester at home. This is a step back but we need to keep working.
We have two important games coming up this week and if we manage to win both, the table might look better again.