The old gold frustrated league leaders Arsenal before the break on Saturday night, and were out of luck with key decisions, before Martin Odegaard won the game for the visitors. Davis now makes way for Lopetegui, but believes he and James Collins have left a legacy, with the old gold battling for every ball, and also having youngsters such a Hugo Bueno flourish, which was evident again on Saturday evening.
On a battling performance
“I think there were good moments in the game, first and second half. They had a lot of possession, I thought we slowed them down really well, the shape was fantastic, hard to get through, over and around. I thought we defended the box when we had to, so we were happy at 0-0. Then, obviously there was a decision first half which should have gone for us.
“He’s onside, clearly. We thought it was a penalty, we didn’t know if it was offside, but he put his flag up. You can see it was a foul and he was the last man, so it could have been a goal or red card, or a goal scoring opportunity, because it would have been a penalty. We feel hard done to, because those moments are really important for us at the moment.
“Then you’ve got something to defend, and they’ve got to break you down. It changes the mentality even more, you’re defending a goal you should have had and haven’t been given. It’s disappointing. I’m not sure if they used VAR, but there’s no point in having it is they didn’t. They’ve got to decide if they want VAR and if they do, they need to use it.”
On the game plan
“We’ve looked at five in previous games and not gone to it. Toti’s been injured, so we felt we didn’t have the balance to play it, but tonight we felt, with the way they set up to attack, that it was the best option to soak the pressure and try to counter. That was the game plan and I thought we executed it but couldn’t quite get the goal. Second half we were disappointed with the goals we conceded, but up to that point I thought we were fantastic.
“We covered a lot of space and tried to counter. We didn’t quite get the breaks and decisions we should have. A penalty and sending off would have changed the game a lot in our favour. At the moment, they need to go for us. We always felt, the longer the game went on, we might have been able to break them down, but of course they were patient and, in the end, managed to squeeze and goal and built on it with another one.”
On Lopetegui taking over
“A top coach with a lot of experience in international football and Spain. He watched tonight and would probably have been pleased with a lot of the aspects of play, and maybe got some ideas from it. So, we’ll see what comes. As a fan, I’ll be watching it from the stand now and hopefully we’ll get some points.
“You can see the fight, the fight’s there, it’s just what we need to do in both boxes. Tonight we didn’t do enough in the attacking box and didn’t do enough defensively, but if that decision had gone for us, it might have been a different story.”
On Bueno’s brilliant performance
“I thought the wing-backs were excellent. Hugo’s growing in strength every game, I thought he kept Saka quiet, and had a fantastic game. Even Bouba, he was superb tonight and did some excellent things in the game.”
On his time in charge
“My voice has gone from shouting. It’s been good for me and James to pit ourselves against some of the top coaches in the world. We’ve really enjoyed that. It’s been a challenge, but I think we’ve done well in a lot of the games, and I’m pleased with our performances.
“We’ve showed some fight on the pitch. I think supporters will have seen that, the last three or four games particularly. Some better performances as well, players are playing with more confidence, and that’s important, so hopefully that will help us.”
