'There's no excuse' - Mikel Arteta unhappy after Arsenal loss to Hibernian in first game of pre-season

ByEurosport

Published 13/07/2021 at 20:06 GMT

"I'm always disappointed when we lose a football match but it is the first game, we played with many kids and we only had four training sessions," Arteta told the club's official website. "We've trained really hard and you could see that the players were a little bit leggy. We created many, many chances."

Mikel Arteta watches on, Hibernian v Arsenal, Easter Road, Edinburgh, July 23, 2021

Image credit: Getty Images

Mikel Arteta has insisted Arsenal cannot use a lack of experience and playing time as excuses for their defeat to Hibernian in pre-season on Tuesday.

The Gunners are looking to put a torrid campaign behind them in 2021/22, but kicked off their prep for the new season in disappointing fashion.

Emile Smith Rowe was on target for the Gunners, but Nicolas Pepe missed a penalty as Hibs claimed a 2-1 win at Easter Road.

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Gunners boss Arteta cited a lack of experience and training time, but said those are not valid excuses for defeat.

"I'm always disappointed when we lose a football match but it is the first game, we played with many kids and we only had four training sessions," Arteta told the club's official website. "We've trained really hard and you could see that the players were a little bit leggy.

I think we conceded the first goal, an accident, and the second goal was clearly offside. We created many, many chances but we didn't score. That's what pre-season is for, to take the things that we haven't done well into a training session and then improve.

"There's no excuse because we want to come here and win the match. They worked really hard, the boys worked really hard and you could see that some of them were not in the best condition, but we're still very early in pre-season. It was great to see some of the young lads making their debuts here. We'll keep working.”