After Arsenal’s 3-1 win over Chelsea, Mikel Arteta faced questions from Viaplay Fotball.
Here’s what the Spaniard had to say about the atmosphere at Emirates Stadium, Martin Odegaard’s improvement and what he said to his players to get a reaction from them after four games without a win.
On an electric atmosphere and good response from his players…
Really proud of our players and of our crowd, they created again an incredible atmosphere for us. We were full of belief, determination and started really lively. You could feel that there was some fire in the tummy still and I wanted to see that. The response was terrific, I think.
On what buttons he pushed to get such a response…
Our pride and who we are as a team. I asked them to show me the team that we are out there. From the first minute, they tried to do everything in the right way, we showed a lot of energy, a lot of quality, we scored some beautiful goals and we earned the right to be in a great position to win the game.
On Odegaard taking his tally for the season to 14…
Great, he’s having an incredible season. We asked them obviously to do more and more and to improve in that area but the main area that he had room for improvement was finishing more actions and being more efficient in the final third and winning matches. He’s doing that much better.
On whether he was worried when Chelsea pulled one back…
You’re always worried in the Premier League when you see every week that two or three goals is not enough. I think after 60 minutes we should have scored four or five, the game [should have been] over and we didn’t do that. We always give them life in that single action.
On supporting West Ham against City tomorrow…
Tomorrow, we will be watching the game. We are top of the league tonight until tomorrow. Let’s see what happens tomorrow.
Arteta: “Tomorrow, we will be watching the game.”
Ben White: “Fuck.”
*quickly checks his calendar to see if he’s owed any annual leave*
‘Er, Boss, sorry, didn’t I mention that solarium appointment I had scheduled for Wednesday night?’
White will have to watch Eastenders on ‘Catch up’.
Great win tonight; next is to go up and silence St. James Park on Sunday. It’s not going to be easy, but we can do it! Let’s play our part and hope the schedule gets to City. How nice it would be if Brighton beat them in the penultimate game, and Brentford pull a draw on the last day and we nick the title by a point! A man can dare to dream. COYG!!!
If they lose one the nerves might start to get them
They have a game in hand right up until the last weekend. That must get to them in amongst all their cup finals. This ain’t over!
Nice to finally escape from the tummy of the beast.
This game makes you wish Lampard had 1 more game at Everton!
This game makes me wish Lampard could manage City for the rest of the season.
That should be their fair play punishment.
Finally some rotation in the first XI
Long overdue. Trossard, KT and Jorgi should be starting next match
For all the good Zinny does, those lapses in concentration are frustrating
COYG!
Agreed on Trossard and KT. If Partey is fully fit then he’s ahead of Jorgi. Newcastle away will be tough. Zinchenko has been error prone, and as much as I love Martinelli, Trossard seems to bring something extra in a similar way to what ESR was doing last season.
Saka maybe needs a break? Perhaps Trossard keeps the starting spot but goes to the right so Saka can get a rest.
Come on Hammers! Time to park a few buses!
Big Sam to do us a big fat one against City.
Fire in the belly, eh? Reminds me of last night’s trip to Taste of Bombay.
There was some fire in my stomach last night too – at the Curry Leaf on the City Road.
Thoroughly recommend it – if you like Indian food of course.