Mikel Arteta praised his side for upping their level of consistency after steering his squad through seven (7) games in Twenty-one (21) days and going undefeated in all of them.
After a tremendously busy period in which the team competed in three competitions against a variety of opponents and managed to achieve five (5) wins and two (2) draws, including victories against Paris Saint-Germain, the North London derby, and a 3-1 victory over Southampton.
Despite all the challenges, the Gunners are currently only one point behind league leaders Liverpool going into the international break, and Arteta is delighted with his team for rising to every challenge and emerging victorious.
Arteta encouraged at Arsenal’s recent run of results
“It’s been a really tough period since the last international break in terms of fixtures, the amount of injuries we had and teams we had to play,” he said after the win against Southampton.
“But the team shows an incredible capacity to adapt to various contexts. They are really willing, they really want this and I’m really happy where we are”.
“This period required something else, something that we haven’t done in the past. For the amount of injuries and with the schedule we had to play, and we played certain moments with 10 men as well. It doesn’t matter, there’s no excuses. We adapted to that, we faced it and we went for it, and I love that character from the team.”
Following a goal from Cameron Archer to put the visitors at the Emirates ahead, Arsenal had to dig deep to find a way like they usually do. Goals from Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli, and Bukayo Saka turned the tide of the match and gave the North London side a positive finish.
Arteta brought on Martinelli, Leandro Trossard, and Mikel Merino at the hour mark, highlighting the strength of his bench, and depth of his his leadership group as Bukayo Saka was thriving as captain. Saka added two more assists to his tally making it nine (9) Goals and assist this season.
Speaking after the whistle, he said: “We fully deserved the points. The first half was unbelievable, the dominance, the amount of situations and chances we generated from open play and set pieces. We didn’t manage to score and without the lead, the second half was going to be different”.
“We started a bit sloppy with the ball in the second half and the game was a bit more open, and then we conceded the goal and then it’s game on. We’ve thrown away everything we did in the first half and we had to play in a different context and the team showed again an incredible capacity to adapt to play with such composure and determination to turn things around”.
“The game was in a stage that needed something else and we had to change the energy on the pitch, and the crowd as well, and we certainly did it”.
“I think [Bukayo] is really enjoying the role and the way he’s driving the team, the respect and admiration he’s got from his teammates. If you want to be one of the best players, you have to turn up when things are difficult and when it matters, and he’s doing that at the moment.”
