Mikel Arteta praised the way his side imposed their game on Norwich as Arsenal coasted to a 5-0 win at Carrow Road to maintain a place in the Premier League top four.
Bukayo Saka put the Gunners ahead on 6 minutes before Kieran Tierney, also played in by Martin Odegaard, doubled the lead just before the break.
Man of the match Saka grabbed his second of the afternoon with another composed finish on 67 minutes before Alex Lacazette’s penalty and Emile Smith Rowe’s tap-in added a late gloss to proceedings.
“It’s a very satisfying result because in this festive period we have to keep performances to a high level,” Arteta told the BBC.
“We looked really sharp and committed. It’s a big win for us. I am really pleased. The amount of chances we create is pleasing.
“We go to every ground to try and impose our game. Today was a really good example. The unity we have around the club and with our fans is very pleasing.”
The Gunners now have less than 48 hours before taking on Wolves at the Emirates. The schedule is relentless but Arteta is backing his players to deliver the goods.
“We will try and recover as well as we can and try and win the game,” said the Spaniard, who again wouldn’t be drawn on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s involvement.
The Gabon international had been due to join up with his country for January’s AFCON but following an agreement, announced this afternoon, clubs won’t have to release any players to the tournament until 3 January.
“He wasn’t selected for today’s match,” said Arteta. “We’ll take it game by game. That was the decision.”
Fair enough. Long may it continue. Love Auba to bits but he’s not the future so here’s hoping our stock in the future continued to soar.
continues*
Very impressive win. Feels good.
As difficult as it is for me to admit, we do look much better organized with Xhaka next to Partey.
Agree with you. Have to admit I sit pretty high on the sceptical scale when it comes to GX and unfortunately can’t help but feel it’s a matter of time before he does something to jeopardise our performance, but credit to him, the last two games in particular he’s really held it together and has also been heavily involved in our nice quick passing and incisive transition plays. Just hoping it all holds together (and that he holds it together) and no fuses break again anytime soon. It’s a shame the partnership will be broken up for those games next… Read more »
healthiest Arsenal team I’ve watched
That was really pleasing on the eyes. A shame Partey is going away now. He was beginning to play himself into form.
Sidenote: Does anyone else find it ridiculous that we play again in under 48 hours? United have not played in 18+ days, yet they play tomorrow — Thursday and Monday again! They have a 3 days rest between games! That’s not fair.
But wasnt that our schedule anyway?
I saw a clip on YouTube from Amazon’s All Or Nothing, Man city edition where Pep was telling his players something along the lines of, “you are not tired. They are champions… You’re not.”
If this team makes it into Europe next year, we’ll travel a lot and play many matches.
We better start now to dig deep.
Had Wolves played today it would not matter
Credit to Arteta. The biggest question mark hanging over his ability as a coach has been creativity and goal threat. 14 goals in the last 3 games, (and it could easily have been about 20) however limited the opposition, is a sign of progress.
The decision to stick with him after last season and the terrible start to this season seems to be paying off.
I do hope he starts making substitutions earlier though, subbing after 70+ mins doesn’t give enough time for the sub to make an impact and the players are more fatigued as well
To be fair ESR has been scoring after his cameos, but I understand your point
Esr
You could throw ESR on at 90+4 minutes, and he’d still probably score!
Esr?
Unless the sub is ESR or Patino that is haha
ESR aside ofc, not every sub is an ESR
i mean he’s on 8 goals now already
Beating up the poor teams is a massive step forward for this team. I’m not being disrespectful when I say that – it gives us such a solid foundation. We can worry about the Liverpools and so on later on in our evolution if we hoover up these points like this. Feeling positive this holiday season!
Agree. Also, did some analysis. The records of the top three against the last 4 teams we played this season (put aside H/A for a sec): City: 10 points, 14 GF, 1 GA Pool: 9 pts, 12GF, 3 GA Chelsea: 9 pts, 15GF, 6 GA Us: 12 pts, 14 GF, 1 GA Not saying we are at their level, but it helps mitigate the ‘only beat the small teams criticism. Even the big boys are dropping points against those smaller teams, and with smaller GD than we’ve managed to achieve. So definitely, full credit to the team and hope it… Read more »
This was so easy and we were so dominant, I feel I can raise my one (less then crucial) criticism. We ought to play in red and white at Norwich. And at Everton, Man City, Leicester, and Chelsea, among others. Especially Norwich though: it’s ludicrous to play in a third kit because your second kit clashes–when your first kit is perfect.
How else will we play in the third kit though ?
There is no point in producing one unless we face teams away from home who play in red and yellow. When are we going to play Lens or Galatasaray this season? It’s just a way for Adidas to flog a £3 bit of nylon for £50 to anyone gullible enough to fork out.
I am truly impressed that you know Lens’ home kit. I am not entirely sure where Lens is, somewhere near the iris, I believe.
Is it because our normal colours and theirs are difficult to tell apart for people who are colour blind?
My only regret: it wasn’t Tim Krul conceding those five goals.
Don’t be Krul.
This game is a good yardstick to measure our progress. Norwich were as bad as they were today when we could only score a solitary goal at the Emirates in the first leg. But today, they were not only outplayed, but thumped 0-5, and that without getting out of second gear.
Norwich tried to make a fight of it, but with the 2nd goal a football match broke out
They were trying to take Boxing Day a bit too literally.
The saga has been thus far that Auba has been starved of service. We are finding out that we have had a passenger in the side for quite a while.
The option of using white for tomiyasu solves a lot of issues for Arteta.
Lovely to see that we dominated the fk out of our opposition in the last 2-3 games.