Mikel Arteta defended after Arsenal’s ‘play not to lose’ approach to Liverpool defeat

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta came under fire for the way his side tackled their 1-0 loss to Liverpool at Anfield, but Joleon Lescott has come to defend the Spaniard’s ‘negative’ approach

Ex-Premier League defender Joleon Lescott thinks Mikel Arteta was right to approach Arsenal’s clash against Liverpool with a ‘don’t lose’ attitude. The Gunners were ultimately defeated 1-0 by their title rivals on Merseyside.

A moment of magic came from Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai, and first blood went Arne Slot’s way in the race for the Premier League title. The Hungarian’s free-kick flew in as he scored the only goal of the game when Arsenal visited Anfield on Sunday, giving the Reds all three points.

Gunners boss Arteta chose a starting XI that mirrored his side’s conservative approach to the fixture, with a midfield consisting of Mikel Merino, Martin Zubimendi and Declan Rice. The Spaniard was criticised for this move after the clash, and Gary Neville was particularly irked by their lack of cutting-edge, especially as new signing Eberechi Eze was on the bench.

READ MORE: Viktor Gyokeres has awkward response to new Arsenal chant about his ex-girlfriendREAD MORE: Paul Scholes and Jamie Carragher tear Mikel Arteta to pieces over Liverpool loss

Yet, former Manchester City and England star Lescott doesn’t think Arteta and Arsenal should be shunned for how they tackled the Liverpool clash, claiming their stance was the right one to take when visiting a title rival.

«I don’t agree with the negative approach talk, I think that was the way that you should go to Anfield,» began Lescott, speaking on In The Mixer, brought to you by Sky Bet.

«You don’t go to Anfield and think, ‘I’m just going to win the way we want to play.’ If Arsenal played like that at the Emirates, playing not to lose, then it’s different. Away, against your title rivals, you go to their stadium and you think, ‘Let’s not lose first,’ rather than thinking that you’re going to win.»

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Lescott did, however, feel that new signing Eze should have started the fixture on Merseyside after he completed a £67.5million move from Crystal Palace last month.

«Eze is that guy. He is the guy,» Lescott continued. «He is the marquee signing, everybody knows. If he were to play on the left, right, or in the centre against Liverpool, no one could have argued.»

After the Liverpool defeat, Arteta was asked about his line-up, and why he set out his side in such a manner, and he responded: «Well, that’s what we had. Martin Odegaard was injured, Kai cannot play, Merino is a player that is incredible arriving from there.

«We played with three attacking players, two attacking full-backs. After the game, I think it’s too easy to say that. We didn’t do our game plan to frustrate them, we did it to win it.

«I think we elevated the game and the dominance to a point that they have to raise it, they did, especially from the 60-78, when then you could see that there were no margins in the game.

«When that happens, the game is going to be decided in two ways. One, with an individual error and two, with a magic moment. You cannot dominate Anfield for 95 minutes, and it changed in various ways, especially because we made the right decision when our keeper got the ball in their hands.

«We started to rush it, the turnovers we didn’t manage them so well, so we could never glide as a team, and they were able to create those moments without really creating any situations of danger.»

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