Arteta hails ‘one of the best saves I’ve seen in my career’ in Atalanta-Arsenal | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta fully expected Arsenal to have a ‘very tough match’ against Atalanta in the Champions League and said David Raya’s penalty save against Mateo Retegui was ‘one of the best I’ve seen in my career.’

The Gunners were considered the favourites coming to Bergamo this evening, as La Dea were back in the Champions League after a three-year absence.

However, they seemed to show a lot of respect to the Italian minnows, who shocked everyone to win the Europa League trophy last season, their first ever European piece of silverware.

Aside from an early Marco Carnesecchi save on Bukayo Saka’s free kick, Atalanta had the best chances, above all that double Raya save on the Retegui penalty and his follow-up header.

“As we suspected, it was a very tough match. Not the nicest to watch, because obviously everything becomes a man to man game everywhere,” Arteta told TNT Sports.

“We started really, really well and we were really commanding the game, playing in the areas that we wanted to play and creating one or two chances.

“Then gave a lot of ball away and couldn’t get any rhythm or momentum to play in the areas we wanted. Without conceding almost anything apart from the penalty, which was probably one of the best saves I’ve seen in my career.

“Raya was unbelievable again today, we had two big chances at the end with Gabriel. This is not the Premier League, boxes become crucial and there are not a lot of chances created or conceded.

“There are a lot of positives and there are a lot of things for sure to improve.”

Atalanta managed to largely neutralise Arsenal, as even the late Gabriel Martinelli effort over the bar appeared to be offside, while Juan Cuadrado curled two efforts just off target at the other end.

“It’s a game that demands the best individually and that means having your players at their best, really composed, really good in duels and today we missed that.”

Italy international Riccardo Calafiori came on as a substitute in the second half and showed at least one of his trademark runs forward from defence.

“He was really good as well, he helped us to get some composure and dominate the game better. Yeah, we need to improve,” concluded Arteta.

Arteta on Arsenal 0-0 Atalanta