CAPE TOWN – Arsenal defender David Luiz has hit back at his critics after starring in his club’s FA Cup win over Manchester City on Saturday night.
The wayward Brazilian has faced attacks from all corners after his poor performance in their 3-0 loss to City in the league, a game that also saw him shown a red card.
Since then, a number of reports have suggested Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta had had enough and was willing to offload Luiz at the end of the season.
In Saturday’s performance, however, Luiz turned on the magic and was immense in his side booking their spot in the FA Cup final, where they will meet the winner of Sunday’s clash between Chelsea and Manchester United.
In an interview with BT Sport after the game, Luiz said: “There was a lot of criticism of me, you can say that. It is part of football, I understood during my career football is about surviving every day you are going to defend your team and other people are going to support their teams it is about surviving.
“It is what I did, I was working very hard every day after my mistakes. I took the blame, I was mature enough to understand that and I was humble to do that for the team.
Speaking about Saturday’s game, he said: “It was a great result against one of the best teams in the world. We were humble, understood the way we had to play. We took the opportunity to score, we have to be mature to understand which level we are in the process.
“We are in the process, we have an amazing coach who wants to bring us the best football for this club but not 0-100 we have to understand that day-by-day we are improving. The spirit was great and I am happy for the team. They deserved it,” said the Brazilian.