DIEGO ALONSO: "ARSENAL WERE BETTER THAN US AND THEY DIDN'T ALLOW US TO PLAY OUR GAME"

Crestfallen after the loss at Arsenal, Diego Alonso gave the following assessment of a disappointing night in London: "The game didn't go to plan, we tried to replicate the positives from previous games and stand our ground. We suffered and they were superior, dominated the game and kept us away from their goal for the majority of the match, which is not what we intended. They were on top for almost the entire contest. We dropped too deep and every time they got the ball out wide, we went even further back, ending up camped in our own box. This was difficult for us as we like to win the ball back high up the pitch. Arsenal deserved the win, didn't allow us to play our own game and now we have to take the chance to atone for tonight in Sunday's derby. We want to show what we're really capable of."

To finish he spoke about the substitutions looking ahead to Sunday: "In terms of Pedrosa, he just had a cramp so hopefully it won't be to bad. With Soumaré we will have to wait. We don't know exactly what he twisted. We will have to make an assessment at a later date."