CM Story - The Story of Josh McEwen

Arsenal (4-3-3): Kepa, Laimer, Saliba, Pienczak, Kiwior, Zubimendi, Rice, Odegaard, Saka, Gyokeres, Trossard 

Subs: Raya, Mosquera, Gabriel, Eze, Nwaneri, Martinelli, Merino, Jesus, Bouaddi 

Atletico Madrid (4-4-2): Costa, Llorente, Le Normand, Hacko (Off 84), O’Reilly, Kubo, Barrios, Gallagher (Off 70), Baena (Off 73), Alvarez, Vlahovic 

Subs: Musso, Gimenez (On 84), Cardoso, Raspdori, Lenglet, De Paul (On 70), Espi, Almada (On 73), Pubill 

Q: Josh a humbling 3-0 loss today how costly was the mistake from Kepa just before half time that gifted them a goal? 

Josh McEwen “It was a tough game which is what we expected, obviously going behind just before half time made things a little harder but we weren’t good enough today. A couple of the goals maybe Kepa will be disappointed with especially the first but other players had bad game sand when three or four players aren’t at it against a team as good as Atletico Madrid are your going to struggle. We have ninety minutes left to play and we will give our all to come back and show what this team is about.” 

Q: Marcelo after Diego Simeone decided to walk away from Atletico during the international break how difficult was preparation for this game? 

Marcelo Lucero “Diego is a legend of this club and any game without him will always be hard. I said to the players win this game for Diego because he has done so much for the club and although this season wasn’t our best everyone loves Diego so much. The way we played was outstanding against a top team who cause everyone problems but they didn’t have many clear cut chances and Julian (Alvarez) was in clinical form he is unlucky not to have a hat trick but the form he has shown this season he is one of the top strikers in Europe for sure he is the top scorer in La Liga and now he is joint top in the Champions League we are so lucky to have him.”

Aston Villa (4-2-3-1): Martinez, Di Lorenzo, Konsa, Torres (Off 90), Alaba, Kamara, Tielemans, Guessand, McGinn, Rogers, Watkins 

Subs: Pickford, Garcia, Bailey, Depay, Ozcan, Onana (On 90), Redmond, Bogarde, Lindelof 

Arsenal (4-2-1-3): Raya, Laimer, Gabriel, Pienczak, Zinchenko, Bouaddi, Merino, Eze, Nwaneri, Gyokeres, Martinelli 

Subs: Kepa, Mosquera, Saliba, Odegaard, Saka, Trossard, Rice, Jesus, Zubimendi 

Q: Cristian a quite remarkable game you hit the bar twice and within two minutes Arsenal went down the other end and scored. How have you failed to win that game? 

Cristian Cuesta “Crazy game crazy moments, I can’t believe twice we hit the bar and then twice they score on the counter. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves with these chances an switch off because it has cost us two points that we deserved if we win 4-0 and them chances go in there can’t be any complaints we hit the bar and they counter so again we can’t complain but we have to win when we have a two goal advantage at home.” 

Q: Josh the second time you’ve faced a team whose manager has just left. Your team was much changed and a couple of individual errors in the first half saw you trailing 2-0 at half time what did you say to your players? 

Josh McEwen “Yeah individual errors were the difference at half time twice our midfield let the defence down but the team showed the character they have to come back and fight for a point. It is always difficult to come to Villa park and today was no exception but when you make mistakes it gives them confidence and they had a lot of chances but we also dug deep at a time when we could have panicked and again we have shown what we are made of. We made a lot of changes to the team so maybe this is the reason for the slow start but a point is not a terrible result.” 

Atletico Madrid (4-4-2): Costa, Llorente, Le Normand, Gimenez, Hancko, Kubo, Barrios, De Paul, Baena (Off 86), Alvarez (Off 76), Vlahovic 

Subs: Musso, Pubill, Cardoso, Raspadori, O’Reilly, Simeone (On 86), Espi (On 76), Almada, Lenglet 

Arsenal (4-3-3): Raya, Laimer, Saliba, Mosquera, Kiwior, Zubimendi, Rice, Odegaard, Saka, Gyokeres, Trossard (Off 76) 

Subs: Kepa, Pienczak, Gabriel, Eze, Nwaneri, Martinelli (On 76), Norgaard, Jesus, Bouaddi 

Q: Marcelo a draw on the day but your through to the Semi Finals of the Champions League how pleased are you over the two legs? 

Marcelo Lucero “Today we draw but we deserve to win again but it is ok because we are into the Semi Finals which is a fantastic achievement for the club and the fans. Arsenal are a tough opponent and we saw this today and I think it really shows how impressive we were last week, to go to the Emirates and dominate like we did was massive but now we focus on the next round and trying to win this fantastic team this trophy because we have come so close in recent years.” 

Q: Josh out of the Champions League there are reports the board are unhappy with the performance of the team this season do you feel your job might be under pressure? 

Josh McEwen “I think when your at a club like Arsenal pressure is always on but I don’t think there is any risk of me being let go at the moment. When I joined the club the intention of the board was to try and win a trophy that's true but the priority was to ensure Champions League football was at the Emirates again next season and to then challenge for more trophies next season. Obviously everyone is disappointed to go out but we will bounce back try and finish the season strong and we’ll go from there but I don’t plan on leaving after a tough Champions League campaign.” 

Arsenal (4-3-3): Raya, Laimer, Saliba, Gabriel, Pienczak, Zubimendi (Off 72), Rice, Odegaard (Off 72), Saka, Jesus (Off 58), Nwaneri 

Subs: Kepa, Mosquera, Kiwior, Eze (On 72), Trossard, Madueke, Norgaard, Gyokeres (On 58), Bouaddi (On 72) 

Brentford (4-2-1-3): Kelleher, Vanderson, Garcia, Paredes, Garcia, Henderson, Maghoma, Damsgaard, Hutsuliak (Off 56), Moreno (Off 58), Schade 

Subs: Vladimarsson, Kayode, Outtara (On 56), Meite, Pinnock, Munetsi, Igor Thiago (On 58), Gustavo Nunes 

Q: Josh after a tough week where you were eliminated from Europe and some have questioned your role as Arsenal manager is this the perfect response? 

Josh McEwen “I don’t pay attention to the outside noise that I can’t control, I trust the board have been honest with me and that my players show that they support me and they did that with a fantastic performance which I would rather talk about. Gabi (Jesus) has had a lot of injuries the last few years and for him to score today I am so happy for him because he works so hard and hasn’t had as many chances as he deserves because of Gyokeres form but today we decide Viktor (Gyokeres) could do with a break and Gabi worked hard and deserved to start and he scores a great goal. The display was perfect from all my players.” 

Q: Vasco how hard is it to face a team when their manager has been questioned and they have been eliminated from Europe midweek? 

Vasco Seabra “It’s never easy playing Arsenal especially at the Emirates but you could sense the Atmosphere their today they got behind their team and manager and it was a tough game for us. I’d be amazed if they changed manager after just bringing him in but football is a funny old game but obviously he has them in a strong position to finish in the top four but we can’t think about that we are in a really tough position with five games left we need to start winning games next week we have no game so we have extra time to work on getting things right and keeping Brentford where they belong.” 

Wolves (4-3-3): Agirrezabala, Garcia, Goes, Krejci, Bueno, Florentino, Doyle, Toth, Esse, Arokodare, George (Off 83) 

Subs: Vilna, Wolfe, Arias (On 83), Larsen, Agbadou, Hackney, Johnstone, Hwang Hee Chan, Kabore 

Arsenal (4-3-3): Raya, Laimer, Gabriel, Saliba, Pienczak, Zubimendi, Rice, Odegaard, Saka, Gyokeres, Nwaneri 

Subs: Kepa, Kiwior, Mosquera, Eze, Trossard, Martinelli, Norgaard, Jesus, Bouaddi 

Q: Dylan not the performance you wanted that result all but ends your hopes of Champions League football how important is it to bounce back and try and get some European football at Molineux next season? 

Dylan Herbert “Yeah its crucial we bounce back from this defeat to put ourselves in the best position to try and get into Europe. When I took over I knew it would be a tough challenge I know we were in fourth but you look at the quality in the Premier League and no games easy and we just haven’t found the form we’ve needed to maintain that push but with four games left we know if we win them we could still be in Europe and that would be a fantastic achievement for this club. Arsenal are a top team we saw that today but we started brightly and on another day could have nicked a goal but look they deserved to win in the end.” 

Q: Josh booed when you came out the tunnel by the Wolves fans does that hurt? 

Josh McEwen “A little bit but thats football, they don’t know the full story behind me leaving but look we had some good times together I got them to a cup final and left the team in a stronger position than when I took over but they can boo me thats their choice a lot of fans clapped a lot booed it is what they have the right to do. I thought my team were excellent again today against a tough Wolves team Julen (Agirrezabala) was at his best first half but we kept creating chances and got our breakthrough in the end."