Saturday, November 23, 2024

Post-Forest quotes: Arteta, Espirito Santo, Calafiori, takes on Nwaneri & more

PlayersMenMatches and team newsPremier League
Lewis Ambrose
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Arsenal hosted Nottingham Forest on Saturday and a comfortable 3-0 win made it 2000 top-flight wins for the club as Mikel Arteta marked 250 games in charge of the first team.

Bukayo Saka, Thomas Partey and Ethan Nwaneri scored for the Gunners, with Nwaneri netting his first Premier League goal for the club, becoming the second youngest player to score a Premier League goal for Arsenal behind Cesc Fabregas.

Here’s what the managers, players, pundits and stattos had to say after the game …

Arteta on reaching 250 games in charge …

“It’s a beautiful day, especially for me, because that’s a big number and it’s a huge privilege to be where I am. Everybody contributed to the game phenomenally well with a lot of fluidity and enthusiasm in our play, dominance, scoring goals and creating so many chances. Then when that wasn’t enough, we brought the subs and they also had a big impact to help us win the game. We scored three goals, kept a clean sheet, so a lot of positives I would say.

Source: Arsenal.com

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Nuno Espirito Santo on facing Arsenal:

Quality players when they are involved in the game it becomes harder. (Odegaard) is one of them. Trossard created problems and Saka created problems. You cannot give time to players to decide so freely.

Source: Football.London

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Arteta on the performance …

I think we started really well. The sense I was getting in the last 48 hours after the international break, the boys coming together and were all at it. It was good to see the impact of the substitutes. Everyone has to feel important. It was a good afternoon.

Source: Premier League

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Pat Nevin on Ethan Nwaneri …

I have seen Ethan Nwaneri a couple of times and he’s extra special. Arsenal left Kai Havertz and Declan Rice out and we hardly even noticed it. Arsenal have got bigger tests to come, but they have got some very special players.

Source: BBC Sport

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Arteta on rotation …

Changing half of the team, I know the risk – you are right or wrong in relation to the result. Today if we had lost, [people would be saying] Mikel is crazy, why is he leaving Thomas Partey, Declan Rice, Martinelli, Kai Havertz and other players out, but I sensed and felt the energy in the team that everybody deserved the chance.

Source: Arsenal.com

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Riccardo Calafiori on his return to fitness …

I don’t feel like I’m tired but for sure I’ve missed some games and felt it on the pitch. But then the stadium gave me the energy. The fans and also my teammates helped me a lot, so I felt really good at the end. I cannot wait to show them what I can do on the pitch again, and to show my teammates to help them.

Source: Arsenal.com

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 Arteta on returning from the international break

I sensed great energy the last 48 hours, the way everybody came back. I sensed a great togetherness and decided to change the situation and go through what has been a different period for us with all the situations that we have come across and the team. Straight away, from the beginning it was dominant, there was an enthusiasm about it. This is what I demand when we score a goal, it should have been another two or three in the first half.

Source: Arsenal.com

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Nuno Espirito Santo on the result …

They played well and we didn’t play so well. Arsenal were the better team. Second half we became more pressing but they killed us with the second and third goals. There’s not much to say. We have to improve because we did a lot of bad things – especially with the defending. Losing is always very painful. We came up short.

Source: premierleague.com

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Arteta on Martin Odegaard …

We talk about fluidity and understanding chemistry and timing, he’s one of the best to do that, to manage the tempo of the game, when to accelerate it, when to slow it down. Obviously he’s been missed and it’s good that we had to sub him because he was starting to get tired and fading a little bit.

He doesn’t surprise me because I see him every day, how he looks at himself, how much he wants it, the energy that he puts in and the courage that he has to play in any circumstances. Obviously, when he’s on the team, you can sense something is different. It is difficult to put a finger on it but it’s different.

Source: Arsenal.com

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Arteta on Ethan Nwaneri …

Ethan comes in and he lifts, you could sense the crowd, the energy and how much they love watching this kid play, which is great.

What I like is that he comes in, in that context, the first thing he does is take a touch, run forward, run past two players and put it inches away from the post. I understand that, I am responsible for him, and you have to do that brick by brick. Today he put in another brick, now we have to put the cement, make sure that it doesn’t get dry, so that he can put in another one and another one and that one is going to stick. Then we put one more layer, we want to put five in a row. Believe me, it won’t work and we have to manage that with his expectations and his load as well, which is really important.

Source: Arsenal.com

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Mikel Arteta on playing Nwaneri …

I am always tempted. I think he’s the second-youngest player for the club to score in the Premier League. It’s giving us all the reason and today is another reason to put him there but that’s when I play him and not somebody else. It’s step-by-step, I would say.

Source: Arsenal.com

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Arteta on injuries to date …

Instead of 12 or 13 players, we trained with 19 for the first time in six weeks, suddenly you are like, wow, the competitiveness, the level, the quality, the understanding, the competition, everything raises and that’s what we need, every single day. Train at that level and that’s down to the availability of a lot of players, they have not been able to do that and when that happens, the level will raise for sure.

Source: Arsenal.com

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Arteta on Saka’s fitness

We can send you an MRI scan! Very simple. But that’s a communication, it was very clear between the medical staff of Arsenal and the national team. He hasn’t done anything, he was away and he needed time to heal and had one training session.

Source: Arsenal.com

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Owen Hargreaves on the game …

Nottingham Forest have been unbelievable this season, especially on the counterattack. But it was probably too much to ask of them to turn up and do something at the Emirates. Martin Odegaard was absolutely star of the show.

Source: Premier League

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Emmanuel Petit on Nwaneri …

On Ethan Nwaneri: “It sends a bad message to Gabriel Jesus, who was on the pitch for at least an hour. After ten minutes, Nwaneri scored a goal. He is a promising young guy with a bright future, and I hope he gets more time to play.”

Source: Premier League

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Riccardo Calafiori on momentum …

We need some really good wins now in a row. From now until March, there’ll be no rest, all the same weeks and we are ready to do this and to win most of the games for sure.

Source: Arsenal.com

Previous articleArteta explains why Arsenal had a different energy today

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C.B.

I was there, my expectations weren’t too high but we did very well throughout, unlucky not to score more and then didn’t have a shot on target. Let’s keep this going!!!

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C.B.

*they didn’t

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PeteyB

Let’s hope Nwaneri’s career and level is more James Milner than James Vaughan

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Emi Rates

This is more like it. Well played!

Also, thank you, Spuds!

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AlexA

Off topic a bit, but as much as I rate Ben I think Timber gives us something extra on the right. Especially in terms of aggression and recoveries. We have five absolutely top class defenders as well as Tomi if he could stay fit.

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Rosapirescastle

We will have reeled in Liverpool by Xmas day .
They have to play city, Everton, spu#ds, while city play pool, utd, villa…. it’s on again and we will catch them

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