Mikel Arteta was full of praise for his players after Arsenal beat Leicester 2-0 at the King Power to extend their unbeaten run in the Premier League to seven games.
Early goals by Gabriel and Emile Smith Rowe did the damage before Aaron Ramsdale produced a string of fantastic saves to protect the points and keep a clean sheet.
Here’s what the boss said when he faced the BT Sport cameras…
On having lots to be pleased about…
Yeah, I’m really happy. Against a top team, it’s really hard to come here and win and the way we’ve done it, the way we’ve played the first half, the way we’ve had to suffer against a really dangerous team who is going to cause you issues, and how we managed the game in the last 20 minutes as well. Overall I’m really happy.
On Aaron Ramsdale’s performance and his save to deny Maddison…
I’ve just seen the picture, it’s incredible. When I was looking at it, I said ‘goal’ once and then twice and he saved them both. Those moments, those individual actions and performances are very necessary when you want to have certain momentum and consistency in results and we’re getting a lot of them.
On Peter Schmeichel praising Ramsdale’s save as the best he’s seen in years…
Coming from someone like him, he should take it the right way because it’s a big compliment.
On his side’s first half intensity…
Yeah, we started the game really well, we created them a lot of issues. We could have scored after one minute and we carried on playing after one-nil, we carried on playing and scored the second one. Then we knew in the second half that they were going change players, the formation as well, and they were going to get at us. There were moments when we didn’t manage certain situations well enough, some spaces that they wanted to use and they caused issues. Credit to them. In the last 20 to 25 minutes we modified a few things and we got control back in the game.
On Arsenal’s impressive set piece record…
This is a process. Setting that is part of the culture, part of the training sessions, implement it as part of the game, as we did. Usually, the definitive actions help you to win and lose football matches and they are very keen to do it.
On climbing to fifth after the bad start…
We need to carry on. We haven’t done anything. We won a couple of matches. We are not where we want to be still. There are a lot of things to improve. Let’s keep humble, working hard and go game-by-game. There are a lot of positives. I’m not going to say anything against any of that but again, there are a lot of things to improve.
So much to be happy about, attack in the first half, defence in the second half. Something is going right, let’s hope we keep going at this level.
And impressed that Arteta still wants to improve further, definitely the right attitude.
Very much has his feet on the ground. “Keep humble.” Exactly.
I think this is the key takeway.
We won, we were alot better than we have been in recent times, bit we haven’t hit our ceiling yet!
I think he won’t be completely satisfied until we’ve won the league, he knows it’s where Arsenal should be!
2022-23 and 2023-24 would be close to 20 years since we last won the league title. The circle is completing and our time is coming. Keep working!!
And so much to savor!
After going through the nervy patch in the second half, it was so gratifying to see Leicester give up.
More of that, please!
It must be very satisfying for Arteta today. There were a lot of pundits criticising his signings over the summer. They said only Odegaard would get in the team of those signings. Today Odegaard was the only one who did not start. Excellent performance
He’s been the weakest signing of the summer so far……I think he could be a better number 8 than 10 in the long run
Odegaard in an incredible talent. I agree he could be a no.8 longer term, he has all of the ingredients. It is very rare to see a standout 6 or 8 before they are 25, so it may take a few years. CM is a position where experience counts as much as instinct. This is what excites me about Lokonga. He is 21, was captain of Anderlecht and he looks like he is comfortable in a new country and a new league within a month or two. He will learn a lot from Partey and they look like a really… Read more »
Just tells you how good cesc and wilshere were, when they were bossing our midfield as teenagers!
I had made my mind up about Arteta, as most of us probably had. How it all suddenly turned around I dont know, but he deserves so much credit for this. Hopefully it keeps going!
Others had made their minds up to give our former captain, highly successful assistant and exceptionally composed manager some time. We hope he continues the progress and love our young resilient, TALENTED and surprising youngest team in the EPL
He certainly has had growing pains as a manager, but I think this is a lesson for fans everywhere that a manager can only do so much. When he has a weak squad or a Frankenstein’s monster of a squad, the results are going to follow and be inconsistent at best. Now there’s a group to build with and build up, and that feels perfect for where Arteta is now as a manager.
I’ll have to admit, I’d more or less lost faith in him. Most Arsenal fans I know felt the same. Yet that Norwich game, 60k turned up and sang like mad and supported the team. Having just watched Spurs- even before they capitulated- they had none of that. And that’s not necessarily a dig at spurs, just I think the supporters deserve some credit for rallying behind this team. Over the moon for Mikel to have proved me/ us wrong, and I fucking love this group of players. There’ll be plenty of downs with the ups given their age, but… Read more »
Credit to Arteta and his coaches for the work they’ve done to get us back up the table after a dreadful start.
Who ever might have seen this coming, eh Kev? 😉
How’s it going mate?
Pretty well, my friend.
Love that this team are starting to click. They are young, it’s all going to go to shit sometimes but you can’t fault the manager or the players at the moment.
Mikel knows <3
How in the name of everything that is Holy did Evans not get a red card? Had me pretty incensed
The lack of consistency kills me too when you see Laporte getting a red for arguably less
I see a system, but more than that I see every player hungry and playing for the badge. Playing for the managers style of play. Ramsdale a leader at the back, we have a spine throughout the team. White and Gabriel, Sambi and Partey, Auba and Laca… and then we have the flair, tenacity and hard working additionals whos names i don’t even need to mention! OK I WILL TOMIIIII NUNO EMILE BUKAYO WHAT A GAME! I TRUST THE PROCESS!!!!
Fun being excited about it…
The win and the performance was great, specially our from Aron and the defensive work. But if you watched the game you have to be honest and say we got luck. After going 2-0 up we should have kept going and finishing them off. We took a big gamble sitting back and letting them attack us so much. On another they the same tactics will not be enough. Whatever tactics we used around the 80min mark was much better with keeping the ball and causing them problems. Fking Aron Ramsdale what a keeper. England 1 soon.
Someday your glass will be half full. It’s obviously not today, but someday.
Yeah, we need to stay humble and not get ahead of ourselves- we’ve won nothing yet.
Absolutely buzzing after that! Ramsdale – what a man!
Funny that for all the talk about processes etc, it is a plain old 4 4 2 that has got us purring. Come on you gunners!
‘Let’s keep humble’
We’re 6th.
There is still so much more to come from ESR and Saka. We know we needed them to step up with end product this seasons to back up their starting eleven spots and to push us further, but it all feels like natural evolution, with a nudge here and there from the manager. ESR, after getting thrown back into football last December while his body adjusted to regular game time, has picked up the end product that he started when he originally broke into the side a few years ago. Saka, there’s a lot more end product to come I… Read more »
I for once trust the process. Artets In! 🙌