By Leandro Trossard’s first half goal was enough for Arsenal to take their title challenge to the final day of the season but Mikel Arteta’s side were far from their fluid best as they beat a depleted Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford.
Knowing they needed to win to keep the pressure on Manchester City, the Gunners settled for a conservative approach and played well within themselves. However, instead of looking controlled, at time they were ragged and unsure of how best to work the ball up the field. In the end, they were thankful the home side had little quality in attack.
After the game, Trossard and the man who assisted him, Kai Havertz, faced questions from Sky Sports. Here’s what they had to say.
On a big win…
KH: Yeah, very important. I think to play here is always tough, we all know that. I think we prepared the game very well, I think we we haven’t got our best game but at the end we needed that three points and we have it now so we can be very happy with that.
On suffering on their way to the win…
LT: We had only one job today, that was winning. Maybe it wasn’t the prettiest one but I think we stuck together, we defended well and at the end it was a good win for us and we did what we had to do.
On the clock going slow in the second half…
LT: Oh yeah, same as always. We were looking for that second goal and if it doesn’t come then it’s going to be a tough second half, especially here with the atmosphere. It’s still a good team and they can hurt you in different ways. So credit to the boys, we defended very well and it’s a good win.
On it feeling different at this time of the season…
KH: I think it feels nice to go in every game. I think we have to win. We have to win every single game because City are always keeping the pressure as well. It’s just so nice. I said that before. It’s so nice to be in that race. Every week you have to play at your best and have to win games. Then when you do it, it even feels better. It’s one game to go for us and we need everyone next week, the fans, the whole club behind us and I think everything’s possible.
On his role in the build-up to Trossard’s goal…
KH: I looked to my right and I saw I’m still on the six-yard line and I called Ben and he saw me straight away. I think it was a one-on-one situation. And this guy [Leo] scored.
On it potentially being a historic goal…
LT: Yeah, that’s nice, but obviously there’s only one objective and that’s try to win the league. Like I said, we have done our job today. We’ll be up to the last game and that’s all we were aiming for. It will be a nice week now and then a great game next week and hopefully we can celebrate something.
On enjoying City’s game against Sp*rs…
LT: Yeah, you never know, it could be [enjoyable]. We can only hope and we have done our job and that’s the only thing we could have done. We just need to enjoy this and look forward to next week.
On supporting Sp*rs
KH: I’m going to be the biggest fan of Tottenham ever. We are going to be, so let’s hope for the best.
