On an afternoon when Arsenal weren’t their slick best, Mikel Arteta was happy to leave Leicester with a 1-0 win that temporarily extends his side’s advantage at the top of the Premier League to five points.
The Gunners dominated the first half and thought they had the lead on 26 minutes when Leandro Trossard curled into the top corner only for VAR to rule that Ben White had impeded goalkeeper Danny Ward at a corner in the build-up.
Arsenal’s frustration with the officials was further compounded when referee Craig Pawson waved away Bukayo Saka’s claims for a penalty after he was hauled down by Harry Soutar.
Clearcut chances were few and far between but when Leandro Trossard put Gabriel Martinelli through on goal a minute after the break, the Brazilian found the net with a calm side-foot finish on the slide; his ninth goal of the season.
It proved to be enough for the win with the home side restricted to just one attempt at goal by the imperious Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba.
“I think for the amount of time that we dominated the ball, possession and territory, the amount of situations that we created in the final third, we should have created much more and scored more goals,” he told Sky Sports.
“When you don’t, then you have to be exceptional in your defensive work. I think we conceded one chance, one shot off target, only so I think defensively the team was outstanding. Great, because it’s a really difficult place to come here and win. We’ve done it and it’s a huge win.”
“Obviously, we want to start fast [in the second half] and start to get in their toes again. It was a really good moment to give us the advantage.”
Mikel Arteta applauds the Arsenal away fans at full-time. 👏 #afc pic.twitter.com/pwmrlMhop1
— afcstuff (@afcstuff) February 25, 2023
On whether Trossard’s effort should have been ruled out, he added: “I don’t know, I haven’t seen the replay. The decision is made, what can we do? It’s a shame because he’s put it in the top bin and it was a great finish but we managed to still recover, not get too upset, and win the game.”
Arsenal’s next challenge is on Wednesday when Everton visit Emirates Stadium. The Gunners went down 1-0 to the Toffees three weeks ago and Arteta knows his players will have to be at their best when his old side come to town.
“We think about the next game, the Premier League is so tough, next we have Everton, we suffered already in Liverpool with what they did to us, we’re going to have to prepare really well, play well and be really dominant in the game to earn the right to win.”
Arsenal needs to create and release publicly a video compilation of penalties given for rivals and those not given for arsenal. Make no comment, just drop it across all social media networks.
Sounds like a very Mourinho thing to do. We’re a classy club, we leave that sort of thing to the small fry.
Agree, let the wins do the talking.
They are, but it’s gone too far man. These guys are doing all they can to stop us winning. We’d already have a legit shout at saying we’ve been robbed and very clearly they aren’t done with trying.
I agree that our club is too classy to do that. But that doesn’t stop the fanbase to do it for the club 😉
So classy means not standing up for yourself and getting screwed over by everyone? Nah mate, I think you meant timid. Daveo has an absolutely valid point, imagine the same fouls happening to Kane, Son, or Rashford, Bruno, Sancho. The refs won’t even need VAR to award the penalty for them.
He was all over Saka like a cheap Soutar.
4 home games in the next 5, all against bottom half teams. Fulham our only away match.
Have a chance to extend our lead…
Left08.Unfortunately the stiff upper lip approach has got us NOWHERE for over 12 years or more.No thanks.
It just didn’t Soutar the ref to give a penalty
Just on way back from the game. Could see that was a pen from where we were sat at other end of the pitch.
They showed the Trossard disallowed goal on the big screens and honestly couldn’t see anything wrong with it. Once ref walks over to the monitor though, there’s only one outcome.
The refereeing standards are awful and it’s hard not to feel we’re being singled out. Can’t be the case though surely… can it….?
They’ve admitted two mistakes already this season. The Saka one today is another….
This is just to point out that Arsenal has as much points away as Chelsea has in all their games, 31. Ten wins and a draw. Awesome.
Have to come out on Weds and pulverize Everton, definitely need Trossard in for Nketiah in that one again as it gives us more ways to attack a packed in defense.
I got a lot of thumbs down this week for suggesting Martinelli and Trossard starting ahead of Eddie, ok we only scored the one that counted but looked more compact in doing so.
Looked better with Trossard
Eddie definitely needed a little break, look what that has just done for Martinelli, I would think Nketiah starts Wednesday, but trossard definitely a good option there as well