Chelsea star claims luck was against them and Arsenal did not deserve win
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal downed Chelsea on Sunday at the Emirates (Picture: REUTERS) Chelsea defender Maxence Lacroix reckons the Blues deserved a draw against Arsenal on Sunday as luck was against them in the 2-1 defeat at the Emirates. Xabi Alonso’s side made the ideal start to the afternoon in north London as Morgan Rogers scored the opener within two minutes. That sparked a brilliantly entertaining first half which was end-to-end and finished level after Kai Havertz equalised for the home team. The second period was not quite as thrilling as Martin Odegaard put Arsenal ahead on 50 minutes and Mikel Arteta’s men were largely in control from then on. Exclusive Premier League previews Get ahead of the start of the season with our weekly football newsletter. Sign up now for free. Chelsea did have periods of pressure and Estevao forced David Raya into a fine save late on, but Arsenal were good value for the three points. Lacroix did not quite see it like that, feeling that the west Londoners deserved a draw in the derby, but did not have luck on their side. ‘We are a little bit unhappy, of course, after losing, but I believe that we did well to be honest,’ said the France international. Maxence Lacroix joined Chelsea from Crystal Palace over the summer (Picture: Getty Images) ‘We just have to adjust some points. I think it’s not easy to play there but we did good. ‘We accept the loss but we want to learn from it. I think it’s good to learn about the mistakes and all the wrong parts. We have to go forward and go again.’ The summer signing from Crystal Palace added: ‘I think it was a good start but once they scored it got more and more difficult. But we showed that we also had good actions and good attacks, so the defeat hurts a little bit. We gave our best. ‘I think we deserved more. Luck was not by our side, but we have to accept it. The desire to score, the attitude was clear. We showed good character until the very end. We deserved the 2-2, but we learned for next time.’ Chelsea took the lead through Morgan Rogers inside two minutes (Picture: REUTERS) Rogers felt there were only one or two moments of quality that separated the teams at the Emirates and Blues captain Reece James saw it the same way. ‘We started the game really well,’ said James. ‘Even when we went behind, we showed character to try and get back in the game. We ran out of time in the end. ‘Football at this level is a game of moments. It’s one or two things that change the scoreline, and that gets overplayed a bit. ‘It was a tough game and we have to review and take the learnings. We have another game against Leeds in a few days and we have to get ready for that.’ Xabi Alonso suffered his first loss as Chelsea manager (Picture: Getty Images) Alonso said it was, like every game, a useful learning experience. ‘Yesterday’s game, we will take many things for the next one, as we have done so far after Fulham, after Brighton, after Luton,’ he said. ‘We want to squeeze everything from each game to make things better, when we win and when we lose as well. ‘That is the process of where we are, where we want to build strong principles and strong ideas for our game, little by little, to win games and to compete in the best possible way.’ Comment now Comments Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google Add as preferred source
