Mikel Arteta praised his team’s composure as Arsenal came from behind to beat Southampton 3-1 at the Emirates to extend their unbeaten run in all competitions to 16 games.
The Gunners enjoyed near-total domination in the first half but couldn’t break through a stubborn Saints defence, marshalled by former Gunner Aaron Ramsdale. They then had to respond to the shock of falling behind when Cameron Archer gave the visitors a surprise lead on 53 minutes.
To their credit, Arsenal quickly regained control, with Kai Havertz equalising just four minutes later, before substitute Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka both found the net
After the game Mikel Arteta told Sky Sports: “It was an unbelievable first half, again very similar to Leicester [last week], total dominance, chance after chance, corners and pieces arrived in the zones.
“They managed to score the goal, I don’t know how. You go, nil-nil and you start the second half giving some simple balls away and give them a little bit of belief and then they scored the goal and then it’s game on and everything that was in the first half is thrown away again and you have to beat [them] from that.
“Then the team reacted incredibly well, a lot of composure, very reassured that we are capable of doing it again. The crowd was amazing again and, yeah, happy day again.
Asked about the character of his side and the way they rebuilt momentum after falling behind, he replied: “I think belief and obviously experiences that have been positive [helped].
“We’ve had to deal with a lot of issues in the last three to four weeks. A lot of injuries, an unbelievable fixture list with seven games and four away, very difficult ones, as well, and we managed to win five to draw two, to play with ten men twice and still have a great results, so really good.”
While the decision to hand starts to Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus, at the expense of Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard, was somewhat understandable given his side’s recent schedule, there’s no doubt Arsenal looked more disjointed than in the last two fixtures. Thankfully, the Gunners have a world-class matchwinner in the shape of Bukayo Saka who laid on two assists before killing the game in the final stages.
“I think, Bukayo was involved in the three goals. And again, the subs make a huge impact. To be fair, the starting 11, the way we started, it was so good. We needed energy, we needed a different dynamic to change the game. We absolutely brought it and again those connections and that belief is key to keep winning games.”
Keep playing Havertz in the midfield and this season will end the same way last season did.
Jesus is not at our level anymore. Keep Havertz up top and for god’s sake, give Nwaneri chances as an 8 until Odegaard is back. Stop trying to shoehorn players in.
Harvetz in that Odegaard position was very good today. Seems like he and Saka are gelling nicely. I get your point on Jesus and Sterling, our attack was laborious in the first 55 minutes or so. But these two haven’t played much together, and too many changes disrupt the flow of the team. That Califouri – Martinelli for example. Its a long season though, we need all players, fit, happy, and firing, and the more minutes everyone gets the better we are as a team whenever we have to call on anyone.
A lot of our fans just don’t understand football but it doesn’t stop them from speaking about it in no uncertain terms.
So happy for ‘Nelli. Electric pace, great goal.
Hope Jesus and Sterling can get back to form, very poor in the first half, we picked up substantially once we made the substitutions.
To be fair if we had taken our early chances, probably would be looking at 5-0.
Like I said on the other thread, first half was nearly perfect. We should’ve scored a hatful from our high regains in the first 15 minutes. Ramsdale presented one right through the middle, lots of other similar situations too, but the timing and decision making or the execution in the crucial few seconds after those regains just wasn’t there. Sterling and Jesus are still shaking off the cobwebs. Go easy on them. They did nothing wrong today.
We now certainly know our ‘B’ team (most of our starting 11) and by default we also know that our ‘B’ team isn’t good enough!
It was great to see starting with Jesus and Sterling up front. They need minutes on the pitch finding their flow and we need them firing all cylinders in the long run of PL/CL.
Saka is just ubelievable our Starboy has laserfocus and precision as his ball to Gabygol was inch perfect.
We have a team with frightening power with Merino, Calafiori, Timber geling guickly. If and when we will have all the players back that would be some team.
COYG