Mikel Arteta was satisfied with the way his side controlled a tight game against Ipswich as Arsenal secured a 1-0 win to climb up to second in the Premier League.
Kai Havertz gave the Gunners the lead midway through the first half when he converted Leandro Trossard’s cross from close-range and the home side were happy to sit on their advantage as they kept the visitors at arm’s length for the rest of the match.
Arsenal did have opportunities to strengthen their grip on matters but Gabriel Magalhaes headed wide from a Declan Rice corner and the latter had a well-hit first-time shot blocked at close quarters.
“It what was it was,” Arteta told BBC Sport after an uninspiring game.
“The first half especially we were super dominant. We generated some good chances. If anything, we should’ve had more than one. We started the second half not great, giving the ball away from the kickoff.
“Credit to them. They were really well organised, really well coached. You’ve got to score the second one in this league. The last few minutes they start to pour forward, play more direct and there’s the feeling more than anything that anything can happen at the end — we hate it.”
After losing Bukayo Saka to a long-term hamstring injury – the manager revealed this evening that the England international underwent surgery on the problem – attention focused on how the Gunners would cope without their talismanic right winger.
In the end, Arteta asked Gabriel Martinelli to fill in and the Brazilian was busy if not particularly effective.
“Very good,” was the manager’s assessment. “It will be different. We had moments in the first half and better moments second half as well. The moments are new and it will take time for us to understand each other. I think [Martinelli] did well.”
Tonight’s win means Arsenal closed out 2024 having won the most games and points in the Premier League over the last 12 months. They also scored the most goals and conceded the fewest. All the same, after finishing second to Manchester City last season and with Liverpool six points ahead this year, they still have it all to do if they are to prove wrong those who don’t believe they can win the title.
“Considering the circumstances we had this season, the amount of times we had to play with 10 men, the injuries, the fixture congestion…it’s good but it’s not where we want to be — we want to be first,” said Arteta.
3 points is the key.
Always!
Tonight showed we have no cutting edge up front. We’re crying out for a striker. Someone who will actually shoot instead of constantly dropping in to link the play. Our wingers have zero options, unless we win the ball high up the pitch and then someone makes an unplanned, spontaneous dart into the box. Cannot rely on moments or opportunistic defence blinders if we’re serious about winning the league. That’s not sustainable.
Are we serious about winning the league ? The summer suggested that we aren’t. It appeared to me that we were intent on being decent and hoping everyone else dropped a level. I’ve seen this movie before.
Well I understand the frustration, but we finished above Liverpool and they made no major moves, in fact they lost their legendary head coach. We were narrowly second to City and they made no major moves, in fact they lost an important piece in Alvarez. We spent more than both of those teams, by some margin. We wanted to do even more but Chelsea beat us to Neto and Sesko wanted to stay at disgustingly-sweet-energy-drink-FC. With the Saka news I believe the club will absolutely try to bring in an attacker in January, and there are already links to Cunha.… Read more »
I agree we need a striker for cutting edge especially in the big transitional moments. But it’s not true that our wingers don’t have targets. Watch every time a cross or a cutback is on, there are at least three players crashing the box. One goes near post, one goes far post and one sits in the soft spot in front of the defenders. If that’s doesn’t happen it’s because of an organizational mistake. Even though the 9 drifts, there is always someone occupying that zone, usually a winger or the L8. Today you saw Kai Havertz crashing the far… Read more »
People who down vote either get it or they don”t
Yeah completely. So I did some number crunching after the game and basically with all of our possession, we had the ball for basically an entire hour out of the 90 minutes and we only manage to muster 2.16xG and score 1 goal. This isnt a top side, these guys are 19th in the league, they are the bottom 4 in terms of goals conceded this season. So sure — great to win the game and all that — but we are noway near good enough offensively to win this league as things stand. We should be blowing that team… Read more »
“Its that simple.”
Yes, which is why Harry Kane famously has three league titles. Oh.
Defences win league titles. I thought th at was accepted knowledge.
Thats only the case if your defence is the best in the league with nobody comparable.
But Liverpool’s defence statistically is as good as ours.
like I cannot get over this “you need a 30-goallord to win a league” silliness when we have ~5 seasons of peak, pre-Haaland Guardiola to study (and City only signed Haaland because the organisation felt obliged to; Guardiola probably wouldn’t have chosen to, but he might have seen it as a managerial/tactical challenge, which he has risen to), and when we were a Son finish (or choose what other minute variable takes your fancy) away from winning the league last season after successfully spreading the goals around. It’s just demonstrably untrue, a silly oversimplification. We need a forward right now… Read more »
You clearly didnt understand what I wrote above. Getting a player in to score 10 goals between now and the end of the season, is not a 30 goal a season player? Its someone who can overall contribute to the 10 goals we are behind Liverpool as things stand. We already have Martinelli, Trossard, Odegaard and Jesus, and we know their output currently has us 10 points behind Liverpool give or take. So what — keep things the same and hope that they can miraculously cough up those goals whilst Havertz remains on course to hit his highest goal scoring… Read more »
This is quite literally the dumbest thing you could have said. With Harry Kane as their striker, Spurs did launch a couple of decent title bids, sure they didnt have the quality to endure it when it came down to it, but having him in the side, he literally got them about 10 to 15 points more than they would have done without him. Feel free to look at their league finishes without him and they 11th with 24 points about 10 points behind us. And as per my comment its basically a point to a goal conversion rate. If… Read more »
Wow lots here. I would say my initial optimism that Liverpool will fade is starting to fade. On one hand it’s hard to see them keeping this tempo up. It’s worth remembering they faltered badly at the tail end of the season last year after a similarly hot start and a pretty big lead at one point. On the other hand, this season feels different. Their results feel more controlled, more reproducible, more inevitable. Salah is already an all timer and he is having an all timer season, the only RW better than Saka. They have Trent absolutely sniping assists… Read more »
This is just simply looking at the numbers, thats what modelling is, its not always what happens in the end, its a hypothetical, however it is normally a pretty good indicator as to whats going on. And the clear indication is — we do not score enough goals in comparison to Liverpool, who are top of the league, and we are not. So in order to over take them, we have to score more goals than them? Because that is in theory at least, within our control — right? Sure we can hope that they somehow lose trajectory, but that… Read more »
I agree with the sentiment, but I don’t think we have to match them for goals. We have to match them and beat them for goal difference. We can do that by conceding less than they do. At the moment that is not the case but it can be by season’s end. And that’s a more realistic expectation than hoping the Jo players we have go bang. I do think Trossard has a hot streak in him, maybe we get something out of Sterling, maybe we sign Cunha, but I have more faith in this team winning with control than… Read more »
How about 0-0 scores till the end of the season? That will be control.
We are already better than them in terms of goals conceded by a goal? And we are 2nd..
Like we need to score more goals.
Not sure why you got downvoted so heavily for saying this. It’s an objectively correct observation that we really do need more options for the forward line. Question is, who will be really available in the Jan market? That Olmo guy is having all sorts of registration problems at Barca, but I think he’s been scoring pretty frequently this season, seems to be in good form. Wonder if we can target him. Other than that I do wonder, with the timing of Edu’s sudden departure was he fully committed in the summer for a striker option. That Sterling signing is… Read more »
Playing Jesus, Martinelli, Trossard, Havertz, and Odegard all together somehow messes with the balance and fluidity of the team. Bringing on Merino for Jesus gave us a better flow going forward. I really don’t see Martinelli doing Fk all on the right. Pushing Jesus wide and interchanging with Havertz is a much better option right now. We also need to increase the number of overlaps from both flanks to pull out one defender from the box.
” “It what was it was,” Arteta told BBC Sport after an uninspiring game.”
Apparently the game was so boring Arteta was still half-asleep when answering the questions.
Angteta.
He is what he is, and the questions were what they were. And if you think this is a pointless comment, it is what it is and I am what I am.
And que sera sera, what will be will be.
Interesting to see that few can spot the obvious typo above that your comment is based on.
3 points was all that mattered, and thank God we got them. Even the “Invincibles” had such games (let’s not forget they drew 12 games). Now onto Brentford. I’ll take another boring win.