Darren Moore was gleeful of his Port Vale side’s performance as they were beaten by Arsenal at home in the EFL Cup.
The Valiants exited the cup in the third round at the hands of the Premier League title contenders, but caused a few headaches for the North London club in between early and late goals from Eberechi Eze and Leandro Trossard, respectively.
Confidence Building Performance
Despite an early setback, Darren Moore was delighted with what his side did to stifle Mikel Arteta’s side, who fielded a strong lineup including Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka following his return from injury. Speaking to BBC Radio Stoke following the match at Vale Park, the former Sheffield Wednesday boss said:
“We didn’t lose our shape, or heads, and stayed compact. To go against that level of opponent and be in the game for long periods was fantastic.
“There was a couple of half chances when I thought we might have pulled the trigger or something dropped for us in the box but it wasn’t to be. We didn’t sit back. We tried top put the pressure on them and turn the ball over and it forced them to produced some really good play to break through us.”
“You can talk about it but when they experience it, it creates discussion. They’ve gone against one of the elite clubs in the world and at times when toe-to-toe with them it will give them a drive to get better.”
Vale play Barnsley in League One action this weekend, who also were bested by a Premier League side in the EFL Cup after a 6-0 demolition by Brighton and Hove Albion at Oakwell.
Writers’ View
Darren Moore is right to be upbeat about his team’s efforts. He and Port Vale put Arsenal to the test, and definitely caused the biggest headache for any Premier League side on Wednesday night’s EFL Cup matches. That kind of performance should be a great boost to the side and will want to improve on where they went wrong on the night, most notably finishing chances from set pieces. After Barnsley were hit for six by Brighton, now is a great opportunity for Vale to translate this performance into their League One matches.
