Kieran Tierney says he had a tough outing against Manchester City but was pleased to make his return from injury regardless.
Kieran Tierney was back on the pitch for the Gunners after a one-month layoff on the sidelines.
The Scottish defender last played for Arsenal in their FA Cup victory over Newcastle on January 18.
It was perhaps not the best of games to make his return as Tierney was finally fit to play against Manchester City.
The 23-year-old initially struggled to cope with Mahrez but later put in a good shift and was one of the Gunners’ most threatening players moving forward.
Speaking after the game, Tierney admitted to having a tough 90 minutes but was mostly pleased to get back on the pitch.
“I was just knackered!” he said to the club’s website.
“Yeah, it was a tough game and I wasn’t sure if I was going to get the full game, but I did. It’s 90 minutes under my belt and I’m happy for that and happy that the manager gave me the chance again.”
Similar to comments from Mikel Arteta, Tierney says Arsenal paid for their mistakes as they went on to lose by a 1-0 scoreline.
“That’s what happened, really,” he said. “Against a team like City you can’t afford to make the start we made in the first five or ten minutes or they’re going to punish you.
“It’s hard because nobody was planning to not start well, so it’s hard to say exactly what it was but it was just something that can happen against a top team and they punished us for it today.
“You try to think positively because you know you’re coming up against a team like City, so you know if you go one-nil down it’s not the end of the world because they’re playing brilliantly right now.
“We always believed that we could get back in it and we had chances and some parts of the game where we were doing really well and we were unlucky not to get a goal today.”
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