Mikel Arteta gave his thoughts on the game after his side trashed West Ham 6-0 on Sunday afternoon at the London Stadium.
It was a dominant display from the Gunners that saw them topple the Hammers without reply from top to bottom.
Bukayo Saka bagged a brace while William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, Leandro Trossard and Declan Rice all got on the scoresheet for the Gunners.
Mikel Arteta touched on a number of topics post-game, including how Bukayo Saka continues to impress him on the pitch.
Saka starting to show his maturity, says Arteta
“That at his age, in the position and consistency [he shows] – normally they don’t go in the same line – he’s proving everybody wrong and [showing] he can do it. What he has done today as well I had doubts that he was going to take the penalty or not because of what happened [last season], but it shows as well how mature he is and how determined he is as well to go to the next level”
On the team’s ruthless display, he added: “That we want to learn, that we want to be better every single week and that we are not satisfied. After the Liverpool game, we have to show now that we have the capacity to replicate that level, or be better, and that’s the way the boys trained the whole week”.
On Declan Rice’s performance during his return to West Ham and his mastery of the set piece:
“I’m really happy with him because it was a very emotional and special day for him. He loves West Ham so much, and today he had to focus on the task and what he had to deliver.”
“Set-piece were one of those, because when we have certain players on the field, he can threaten from outside of the box more than inside the box. And then I was really pleased to see the class of the crowd as well to give him the reception that, I think, he deserves”.
“Yes, because we know the standards and the level that we are facing. We need to be at this level if we want to have any chance to be successful”.
Whether they signed Rice in part because of his set-piece ability, Arteta concluded: “Yeah, it was something that we knew, and we could imagine. It depends who as well who plays in the team, how much height, presence and physicality that we have inside the box to make the right decisions. He certainly has the delivery, he used to it here at West Ham as well, and he’s done it in the national team. It’s another thing that we can add to his game”.
