Norwich City

Tettey frustrated after late loss at Arsenal

ALEX Tettey says he and his Norwich City team-mates ‘deserved more’ after their controversial 3-1 defeat against Arsenal on Saturday afternoon.

The Canaries were leading going into the final ten minutes thanks to Michael Turner’s header, but after Mikel Arteta equalised from the penalty spot, goals from Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podolski secured the home team all three points.

Chris Hughton felt aggrieved about the decision to award the spot-kick after the assistant official overruled the referee when Kei Kamara and Giroud collided in the box, and Tettey’s thoughts mirrored those of his manager.

“The lads are really disappointed. The goal was a disappointing decision from the linesman – the referee was ten metres away from the incident and he didn’t say anything, and the lineman who’s far away is saying it’s a penalty,” said the Norwegian midfielder.

“From my point of view, Podolski was leaning on Kei and Kei got the ball. I turned to run forward and the linesman said it was the penalty. The referee had a great view but didn’t whistle.

“That goal didn’t help us – we worked really hard for 80 minutes and I think we deserved more.”

The result now focusses attention on the visit of basement club Reading next week, and the 27-year-old is under no illusions about the importance of the match at Carrow Road.

“Next weekend is like a cup final. There can’t be one point or no points from that game – we need three points. That’s a massive game for us,” he added.

“I don’t want to stand here and say that if we don’t win that game we’ll be in trouble, because after that we have four more games, but it’s massive for us. From now, it’s all we’ll be focussing on.”

Tettey had returned to the line-up for his first start since the match against Fulham in early February, and he says he hopes he did enough to play a big part against the Royals next Saturday.

“I’ve missed some games and I’m really glad I got to play almost 90 minutes and get my form and fitness going,” he said.

“I’m really sad about the result today though, because the lads put in a really good shift, but from my point of view, it was good for me to come back and I hope to work hard and get some playing time again next weekend.”