Agnew: I couldn't be more proud

Cape Town - Middlesbrough boss Steve Agnew couldn't fault his players for their effort at the Riverside on Monday night where they pushed Arsenal all the way before losing 2-1.

Mesut Ozil scored the winner on 71 minutes after Alvaro Negredo had cancelled out Alexis Sanchez's 42nd minute opener, five minutes after the restart.

After the game, a proud Agnew praised the determination of his side.

He said: "I couldn’t be more proud of the group of players, they gave every ounce of energy over 94 minutes.

“I told them at half-time we needed to play forward a little earlier, and when we scored the goal we put them under real pressure.

“Even when we conceded the second we still had chances when the ball went into the box.

“We tried everything we could from a tactical point of view.”

Up next for Boro is a winnable game against Bournemouth on Saturday, with the manager adding: "This group don’t know how to give in and they will never, ever stop.

“As I’ve just said to them, we’ll start to prepare tomorrow and we go to Bournemouth ready.”