Mikel Arteta ‘extremely surprised’ by reaction towards his team selection against Man City | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta says he is “extremely surprised” by the claims he left the handbrake on with his tactics and team selection against Manchester City.

Arteta defended his team selection after the game, having opted to change things at half-time with his side a goal down to City.

Gabriel Martinelli rescued a last-gasp point for Arsenal, but Arteta once again defended his decisions ahead of the Carabao Cup game against Port Vale.

“In football, surprised? I don’t get surprised by anything,” he said when asked about the narrative surrounding the game.

“I don’t read it, but he (the press officer) does tell me a little bit what the narrative is around it.

“If you tell me that this is the main one, if I’m surprised, I would be extremely surprised, with my knowledge and my know-how and how I analyse a football game because it was impossible for somebody to predict such a dominance from Arsenal throughout 96 minutes because it never happened in 17 years of Pep as a manager.

“So if the narrative goes somewhere else, and we talk about dominance, about something else, how can you be dominant against such a team if you have, what was the word that was used? Handbrake. Dominance and handbrake. There are two different words, but I accept everything.

“I was just surprised because when I saw everything and watching it back and all the stats, I was surprised. But I respect everybody’s opinion and if I can see and learn something that I haven’t seen, I’m more than happy to do so. So that’s never an issue.”