Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has told Football.London that there is no point regretting the deal to sell Emiliano Martinez to Aston Villa.
The Gunners lost 4-1 to Manchester City on Tuesday night, with Gabriel Jesus, Riyad Mahrez, Phil Foden and Aymeric Laporte finding the net.
Arsenal are now out of the Carabao Cup at the quarter-final stage, and Arteta remains under pressure after another disappointing night.
Arteta decided to rest Bernd Leno and give a chance to Runar Runarsson, who was signed from Dijon over the summer as backup to Leno.
The Icelandic international made a superb save from Jesus in the first half, but his night turned into a disaster as he fumbled Mahrez’s free kick into his own net.
He also could have done better for Jesus’s goal, and some may feel that he went down too early when trying to close down Foden, allowing him to lob the ball into the net.
After the game, Arteta refused to blame Runarsson, suggesting that Arsenal win and lose together, and felt Runarsson hadn’t let him down before.
Arteta suggested that Arsenal ‘had to’ sell Emiliano Martinez to Aston Villa over the summer, believing there is no point regretting as the club need to believe in Runarsson rather than comparing him to his predecessor.
“It is but we win and lose together. Alex has played other games. We decided to play him tonight for lots of reasons and that’s it. The responsibility is for all of us,” said Arteta.
“It’s no point having any regrets or not. There were different reasons why we had to do that transaction. We did it and it’s part of the past. Emi had a really good few months last season. He really helped us and obviously when a goalkeeper makes an error these things are gonna come up,” he added.
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