Mikel Arteta was pleased with the attitude of his players as Arsenal eased past a young West Brom to secure a tie with AFC Wimbledon in the Carabao Cup third round.
The Gunners scored three times in each half with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang grabbing a hat-trick and Nicolas Pepe, Bukayo Saka and substitute Alex Lacazette also finding the net.
After a tough start and lots of negative headlines, it was a fun night at The Hawthorns ahead of Saturday’s daunting trip to the Etihad.
Here’s what the boss had to say when he faced the Sky Sports cameras…
On the biggest win of his managerial career…
It was really good. It’s always a tough place to come in midweek. They are a good side. I know they made some changes, we also made some changes, but to score six away from home and keep a clean sheet, which we needed as well, I’m really happy.
On what pleased him the most…
The attitude that the team had right from the beginning, right from the warm-up, the way they worked and the togetherness around the team. We’re all disappointed that we haven’t won any of the two games in the Premier League but the attitude of the team and how together they are.
On what the win gives his players…
When you lose, the most important thing is to win the next match as quick as possible. Win, get some confidence, get a clean sheet, score some good goals. Players that needed goals, players that needed minutes, it’s a very positive night.
On Aubameyang looking sharp…
He didn’t start the season, he’s coming from Covid and he looked sharp. Obviously, it’s the first minutes that he played along with the other night so he needs some rhythm and physically, he’s not at his best yet, but he looked good tonight.
On whether Auba will play more games in the middle…
He’s played outside, he can play inside, it’ll depend on the plan for the game, the players we have available, whether we play with two strikers, it’ll depend.
On Odegaard and Ramsdale…
Very good, both of them. I think Martin gave us something different on the ball that we don’t have with any other player in the team. And Aaron looked very comfortable. He’s a big personality and he looks really comfortable in goal.
On whether Arsenal might spend more money…
I don’t know what will happen, there’s still a few days to go. We have some exits that are planned.
On Kolasinac and Maitland-Niles playing despite speculation…
As you say, this is speculation. While they are here, we try to treat everybody as good as we can, give them minutes. They have an incredible attitude so the only thing we can do, when we can, is to reward them with minutes because they deserve that.
On a tough game next against reigning champions Man City…
Absolutely, we know what we’re going to face at the weekend, it’s going to be a completely different game. We have to get ready physically and mentally after tonight and then go for it.
Arteta post match dressingroom speech:
– “Great performance today lads. Let’s carry this over to our next match against Norwich.”
Xhaka – “You mean Man City.”
Arteta – “Who?”
This was so funny the first time, an now you’ve gone and ruined it
Two up front. Those were the days!
I think today when Laca and Auba is on the field, Laca was the one dropping deeper like a CF while Auba stayed up front. I think this is better than pulling Auba to the left hand side where he need to running up and down the field to help out defence.
Yeah, that was actually interesting. You get Laca’s better ability to build up play and shoot from distance, while keeping Auba’s pace as a threat.
It’s what we all wanted when Emery was in charge but never fit his system, laca has played 10 to try and emulate this but 10s get marked out of the game so was ineffective
I think that, in effect, Lacazette took on the role that Odegaard played. Obviously, they do this differently, but both have a high number of touches, looking for a pass, in (or moving to) the centre of the pitch.
Yeah. With this current Arsenal side, I do think we’re so dangerous with a front two. Pierre and Lacazette when they’re paired up against centre halves are always going to create chances. I don’t like Aubameyang shuffled out wide in a front 3. I’d argue that since Arsene left, the best we have looked is when Emery played a 352. We had that 22 games unbeaten run in the league. It was also the same system that got us to the Europa League final. We kinda fell apart in domestically when he stopped playing it, albeit that was largely down… Read more »
I agree with you but I don’t it’s what Arteta wants to do and Maitland-Niles is probably the best RWB we have and he looks on the way out.
Sunderland and Stapleton.
Exits
Kolasinac
Bellerin
Niles
Willian
Nelson (Loan)
Nketiah
Runarsson
Numerically we could lose these 7, without any need for replacements
Leno, Ramsdale
Chambers, Soares
Tierney, Tavares
White, Holding
Mari, Gabriel
Xhaka, Elneny
Partey, Sambi
Smith Rowe, Odegaard
Pepe, Saka
Aubameyang, Martinelli
Lacazette, Balogun
Would be much neater and more balanced than the 31 man squad we had in October, much more manageable, particularly without European football
Couldn’t agree more. We’ll have a well balanced squad if we can trim those players (although RB needs some attention!).
It’s still not at the required level we really want, but from here onwards, each transfer window can be about adding first team quality, rather than plugging holes.
RB and bring Saliba back so Mari can dust out the team bus.
That would also trim a cool half a million off the weekly wage bill. I would much prefer to keep Bellerin though and get rid of Cedric (even sending him on loan to a Portuguese team if there’s no buyer). I would also keep Maitland-Niles, for his versatility if nothing else. The African Nations Cup is in a few months (Covid / Red list permitting) and Partey/Elneny will be gone for weeks, leaving us very light in CM with only Xhaka/Sambi. Bear in mind this time period contains a NLD, 2 FA Cup matches, and 2 potential League Cup semi’s,… Read more »
Yeah, I was thinking about this–it seems like it would be crazy, maybe even reckless, going into that period (four to six weeks?) with only two CMs. So I would have to assume that if AMN left, a new CM would come in. But the gossip on such a move seems pretty dried up at this point, so I don’t know.
I’d keep AMN as long as we can convince him to play right back.
Out of Chambers, Soares.. he is the best profile of player to do it.
I like Niles, but the writing looks like it’s on the wall for him at Arsenal
We started Cedric against Chelsea, and Cedric is bang average
We started Elneny in midfield, and Chambers at right back last night
If Niles can’t get a start against the West Brom youth team, then I don’t see any value in him staying
He’ll be a really good signing for someone, he’s 24 at the end of the month, he needs to start playing consistent football, he was on the fringes of the England squad last year
Look at our left back options lol. Not the best but hopefully does a job. And Mari has been bad the first few games
When I first watched Mari, my concern was his mobility under pressure and also if faced with a relentless attack. However the pace problem is the same with `holding too.
I’d love upgrades in any area of the pitch, but with 5 days to go of the transfer window, it looks like we’ll have to settle for trying to clear a few out, and improving the internal competitiveness of our squad Too much competition, kills competition, there’s only 11 places in the team, and only so many games Having 14 players outside the match day squad like we did in October, was always going to create problems internally Too little competition, kills competition, because it doesn’t matter how badly players play, train, or behave, there’s nobody snapping at their heels… Read more »
Arsenal are going to win the league
😁😁😁😁😁
Not an overreaction at all. 😉
Aaaah, you beat me to it!
The word ‘cup’ is missing from the end of your comment.
We’ll, at least we know we can do pretty well against Championship sides.
If the results in the league continue, we might need that more regularly…
Dark
Idk if the West Brom first team would be this easy. They are as good as Brentford. We did well to win but that was not the West Brom first team.
It was 0 – 4 last season with their first team.
Only if it’s a Championship side made up of youngsters.
Hey, I was trying to be positive.
This really was one of those damned if you lose, damned if you win kinda of matches for the team. Despite our opposition, it is HUGELY positive for this team to knock 6 into the net. Odegaard was great for us. You can see how significantly he contributes, not just on the ball but off the ball. We are so much better with him in the team. Auba scoring a hat trick – you’d have to be smoking crack to think this is not a positive. If Auba has a good season in front of goal, Arsenal has a good… Read more »
I’ll be a lot happier if none of the goals from this match end up as goal of the month.
Interesting that when it was who Emery switched systems, the narrative was that he buckled under pressure and abandoned his principles.
Only to you mate, only to you. Rest of us are blissfully replaying Auba’s 3rd in our minds.
We didn’t really play 3 at the back… unless you think Pepe played as a RWB?
It was absolutely a 4-2-3-1; the confusion may have come because Kolisinac (normally a left fullback) was a centre-half. And Chambers–in the past a centre-half–was the right fullback.
Yep, I’m thinking of it as a team-gelling, fitness-building, confidence engendering, glorified pre-season friendly.
Just what we needed good result away from home and players returning. Fingers crossed for any kind of result against City
Did Arteta just look uníon up in his Spanish English dictionary and the translation he got was togetherness and now this is his word of the week?
You would be right if there were no native English speakers around him (that also understand Spanish).
Perhaps one of them should tell him team unity is the better terminology. Or am I the only one that thinks togetherness is a little strange? Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not sure it is a term I’ve used much.
Harmony,
Solidarity,
Rapport,
??
Auba & The New Boys. Sounds like a band.
Or a 1970’s cartoon made by Hanna-Barbera.
The general media narrative with Arsenal tends to be either one of a crisis or success. There never seems to be a middle ground for us, that we are neither that good or bad. I wonder how many of our fans are influenced by this misleading narrative.