“They then can play with a bit more freedom, but I must still say the young players showed spirit.
“If you look you see the players and price tags they put in from the bench, we have young kids who we put on. There is a gulf but I am still proud of the boys.
“If you look at the players and the price tags on the bench, no disrespect to our players but they were kids.
“We can say we played similar to how we did against West Ham. We won that 3-1, tried to do the same here and we couldn’t.”
Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno, who made a brilliant first-half save to deny De Bruyne a hat-trick, insists the squad are fully behind club legend Ljungberg but intimated that the players want to know what the club’s long-term plan is.
