Middlesbrough caretaker boss Steve Agnew had nothing but praise for his players following the 2-1 defeat to Arsenal on Monday.

Boro troubled the Gunners for the majority of the game but eventually came up short against the quality of Arsene Wenger's side, with Alvaro Negredo scoring between Alexis Sanchez's opener and Mesut Ozil's winner.

Following the game, Agnew said that he couldn't be prouder of his players after their efforts in the defeat at the Riverside.

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

"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."