Henrikh Mkhitaryan says Arsenal played a great first half as he helped himself to a goal and an assist on the way to a comfortable 2-0 victory against Southampton.
Alex Lacazette opened the scoring after six minutes when he diverted home a shot by the Armenian and five minutes later the midfielder doubled the Gunners’ advantage with a tidy finish after good work by Alex Iwobi.
The result, coupled with Manchester United’s draw with Liverpool, sees Unai Emery’s mean climb into fourth position ahead of two games in quick succession against Bournemouth and Sp*rs.
After the game, Mkhitaryan, who now has five goals and four assists in all competitions this season, said he was pleased to play his part in an important win.
“I didn’t just enjoy linking up with Laca, I enjoyed linking up with everyone,” he told Arsenal.com.
“I think the connection was great between the players and we were unlucky to only score two goals because we had three or four more chances to score. But that’s football and we’ll keep going.
He added: “Of course we needed it. It’s an important three points and now we have to be focused against Bournemouth on Wednesday.
“That’s going to be a tough game so we have to be ready for it. We’re still in the race and we’re going to fight until the end.”
The Gunners might have had more goals after the break but were profligate when opportunities presented themselves. Mkhitaryan admitted that it was the only frustration on a good afternoon.
“Sure because it doesn’t matter if we’d already scored two, we wanted to score more,” he said.
“It’s part of the football. We wanted to make our fans happier but today we could only score two goals.”
Yeah but we were really lucky not to concede on multiple occasions too.
Mean men!
I’m taking the win in the sun today. Felt like a much more positive atmosphere from where I was sitting. Sure we had some nervy moments but we were by far the better team, played some lovely football at times and saw some much better performances all over the pitch. Time to turn this into some end of season momentum.
Didn’t see the game because our UK broadcaster, Sky, decided to inflict the awful, soporific snore-draw that was the United-Liverpool game on us Brits instead. But you can’t grumble with a win and a clean sheet that takes us into the top four. Then the Chavs lost the cup final – hee, hee!
We have to keep winning, because United will. And the Chavs actually looked quite good today. They may be back in form. Still think that the EL is the most likely way we’ll qualify for the CL next season.
sportek is a great stream website ….and totally legal of course. We could have had quite a few today!
Yup, sportek is the one. Multiple links & works just fine on PS4 as well.
2-0 up after 17 minutes, I was hoping for us to get 5 or 6.
Been a long time since we really destroyed a team.
But happy that we have two clean sheets on the bounce.
I must be compeltely different to everyone else. I couldnt give a flying rats Testes about clean sheets. If the team is winning 7-5 dont care. Its the win thats the bit I enjoy.
He did good for us today Mhki. I thought he was decent against Bate too. We will need him to find some form and step up. If he can provide some guile down the right (or left) it will help. At the moment we are heavily reliant on Iwobi to open things up for us. Arguably, he is difficult to replace currently. Mhki as I mentioned many times not my preferred choice last January. Hit and Mslintat made a massive error not getting Mahrez (before city came in for him late in window) But we have 11 matches left and… Read more »
Honestly can’t understand why so many people overlook Mkhi online, provided the assist and goal and has generally been solid since hes come back – just cause he dosent do random stepovers dosent mean hes bad.
Absolutely. Even before Mkhi got injured he saved us a draw against Wolves & scored two on our away game with Southampton.
Good to have him back for the busy schedule! Hopefully he stays match fit now.
Good to see Ozil AND Ramsey featured. I don’t see why Emery will not play Ozil given he is all too willing to play Ramsey. given better balance in midfield with Granit and either of Torreira or Guendouzi, we have been more secure last 2 games against Bate and against Soton where we struggled to put authority in the middle of the park against huddersfield. Which then provides us the basis to play Ozil to his strength without compromise to security. Not that Ozil doesn’t defend (which is what the pundits would prefer to belief) because he puts in a… Read more »
Agreed re: Özil. I’m one of his biggest advocates, but today I started to understand Emery’s beef with him. Just compare his sprint speeds during offensive actions vs. defense. There’s no comparison; he’s barely jogging to close down opponents which simply doesn’t work in Emery’s high-pressing style. This is in stark contrast to Laca who busts his ass on defense; Laca made that second goal by closing down Jack Stevens who had to scramble it back to the GK. I was skeptical when we picked up Laca last season but he is proving to be an incredibly complete player –… Read more »
let’s not get carried away it’s only south hampton bigger challenges lie ahead, mans is acting as if we won the champions league
I don’t think you understand our recent history with Southampton. They’ve been a bogey team for us for several seasons now.
To be fair, they’ve only been a bogey team away. They haven’t beaten us at home since 1987.
That’s not called unlucky. It’s called not clinical enough.
I’m genuinely confused by the plaudits for Mkhi today. I have nothing against the player and I wish he does well, but my immediate reaction after the game was that he was pretty anonymous. However, there’s nothing but praises for him here. Well yes, he ended up with a goal and assist. The goal was well taken, no doubt about it. His assist however, was a shot so far off that it was destined for the corner flag. Other than the above two actions, I couldn’t really remember anything positive about his play today, and he lost the ball on… Read more »
Something that nobody else brings to the right side of the pitch right now. With Hector out, when Mkhi was out too we had zero going on in the right side. He comes back, and we’re noticeably more complete on the right. And his work rate is very good.
Dear Mhiki : keep it up son! – dad