Manager Manuel Pellegrini has pulled no punches following our three nil defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield, but he’s certainly not overly downbeat following the game.
Speaking to the Official Site the gaffer admitted that we were seriously below par in the opening 45 minutes of the match but he did feel we showed good improvement in the second half, but just not enough improvement to make a proper dent into the scoreline and change the game back in our favour.
‘In this match we had two different phases. In the first half we didn’t play with the pace we showed in pre season and Arsenal scored two goals because we didn’t defend very well. In the second half we played well, we had possession of the ball and had chances to score. It’s always bad to lose but we don’t need to worry – this was all about players engaging in the game rather than the all round performance.’
Pellegrini wasn’t shy either about pointing out this was a first eleven made up of people with a full pre season under them so far, and not necessarily (obviously) the starting eleven we will hit the Premier League with because we have players still to come back from extended holidays this summer following the World Cup, so whilst there will have been things he will point out privately to players and have them working on in training, he’s really not that concerned about the defeat although he would’ve liked to have picked up the Shield.
‘We were missing key players but I think the lack of pace in the first half was the main problem. Today was not the date to make pressure on me for places, it was one game more of pre season. We’ll see during the week which players are ready and which are not.’
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