Sunderland may have fallen to another defeat this season in Tuesday evening’s game against Arsenal but manager David Moyes felt he could take plenty of positives from the performance.
Holding the hosts at the Emirates Stadium to a scoreless draw for 69 minutes before Alexis Sanchez hit a brace to consign us to defeat, Moyes told the Official Site in his post game press conference that he felt it was a very positive showing from the players.
‘We can put our name to that performance. We didn’t like Saturday’s – the players were well aware of that and they didn’t like the performance either. Tonight we showed a lot of character and a great deal of effort. We performed in a good way which gave us a chance.’
Moyes went on to say.
‘We made some good chances, but we just can’t seem to get that first goal in the games and tonight we had one or two opportunities to do that. As a professional in any walk of life you have to bounce back and show what you can do, and I thought the players did that tonight.’
With victory for Arsenal meaning they keep their top four hopes alive as we go into Sunday’s final day fixtures, Moyes admitted clearly the better side won on the day and Arsenal’s quality was clear for all to see, but the defensive efforts put in for him showed how well we had done on the evening.
‘We were ultimately outclassed by the better team. Arsenal are probably one of the division’s form teams at this moment in time. We contained them for long periods, made some chances and passed the ball well when we got it tonight, so there were lots of good things.’
Adding.
‘The players deserved the applause they got at the end – the performance merited it.’
With Arsenal having 36 shots across the game, a Premier League record for them, goalkeeper Jordan Pickford also came in for praise with his performance and saves on the day.
‘Jordan made some wonder saves at different times. Good on him – everyone who follows Sunderland knows just how good he is.’
