It's time Aberdeen lived up to big expectations says Kari Arnason

Kari Arnason knows the expectation levels for him and the current Aberdeen team are a lot higher than they were during his first spell at Pittodrie but is honest enough to admit they can both do better in terms of delivering on them.

Kilmarnocks Rory McKenzie tries to keep pace with Aberdeen winger Gary Mackay-Steven. Picture: SNS.

The Dons were a side struggling in the bottom six under Craig Brown when the little-known defender signed in the summer of 2011 after failing to earn a contract with Hearts, but their respective profiles have been enhanced considerably since.

Hence the Aberdeen supporters’ excitement when someone who was a key figure in Iceland’s memorable Euro 2016 run in France returned to join arguably Derek McInnes’s strongest squad after four years of continual improvement at the club.

It’s left Arnason as baffled as they are that he has so far failed to make a bigger impression since a move he agitated for from Omonia Nicosia, as Saturday’s disappointing draw with Killie was only his second start second time around.

On a personal level it was an improvement on his first at home to Hamilton but he knows Aberdeen won’t mount a serious challenge to Celtic in the Premiership if collectively there are many more performances like the one they gave at Pittodrie.

“We can’t afford to drop points like this if we want to challenge them,” was Arnason’s succinct summing up. “The first 30 minutes is the way we want to play but we can’t take the foot off the throttle. I don’t know what causes it but we have to eradicate it.

“It is a disappointing result but we have to take the positives and try to build on it. The first 30 minutes we battered them but we lost control for the last 15 minutes of the first half and then were sloppy at the start of the second half and they punished us for it.

“We’re going into every game to win and it should be the mentality of this club. We haven’t been beaten domestically this season and we have to keep that going.”

Stevie May’s stunning strike in ten minutes looked set to spark a convincing Dons win as initially they were, as Arnason said, utterly dominant. But, by the end, even McInnes admitted the division’s bottom club thoroughly deserved the draw Jordan Jones’ second-half equaliser earned.

The Aberdeen manager felt it was all too reminiscent of the previous weekend’s performance in the draw away to Hearts and, while they only lag two points behind Celtic at the top of the table, he will need to find a solution before this week’s League Cup and Premiership double header at Motherwell.

That task should be made easier with the depth of squad available, especially when you consider McInnes had the luxury of being able to introduce Ryan Christie, Gary Mackay-Steven and Adam Rooney from the bench against Kilmarnock. However, as Arnason’s return has proved, it’s not quite that simple, as someone with a realistic chance of playing at next summer’s World Cup in Russia is still not certain of his place when the team travel to Fir Park on Thursday for their quarter-final tie.

“I was very unhappy at myself in my first game as I didn’t show anyone what I can do” he admits. “I knew from that point on I had to be patient for another chance. I don’t know what happened, it was just a bad game.

“I tried to keep it simple by winning the headers and clearing the ball [against Kilmarnock] but it will be up to the manager whether I keep my place.

“We’ve got a good squad here and we’ve shown in spells what we can do but we need to do it for the whole 90 minutes.”

Lee McCulloch’s hope will be that his players can maintain the form they showed in the last hour on Saturday for at least as long as the two vital home games against fellow strugglers Dundee and Ross County prior to the international break.

The Kilmarnock manager saw his side somehow survive Aberdeen’s early onslaught 
to more than match their opponents after Iain Wilson’s
injury forced a fortuitous switch from three centre backs to a more effective flat back four.

The visitors might even have taken all three points from Pittodrie as Stuart Findlay’s hooked shot shortly after the equaliser came back off the bar, but at least they stopped the rot of 13 straight defeats against Aberdeen, even if they remain bottom on goal difference for now.