Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta has praised his players for a “great performance” in their Premier League win over Newcastle United.
Sven Botman’s own-goal plus goals from Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Jakub Kiwior saw Arsenal claim a dominant win to stay two points behind league leaders, Liverpool, despite ex Gunner – Joe Willock’s late header against his former team.
Reflecting on a dominant performancee post-match, Arteta believed that his team delivered “a great performance,” having had “just half a day to prepare for the game.”
Arteta proceeded to praise his players for how they attacked the game as he continued: “The way they executed everything – the intensity, the commitment, the determination, the aggression and progression in everything that we were doing with the ball.
“They played with a lot of courage against the team and we got rewarded. I think we fully deserved to win the game.”
Arsenal are this season’s most prolific team from set-pieces with 18 goals and Arteta credited set-piece coach, Nicolas Jover for their improvement in that aspect of their play.
“The fact that we are scoring goals in various ways, from various players as well, is really satisfying.
“We could’ve scored many more today and we have to continue to do that, and keep developing all the things we can still do better and something we have to improve obviously, and get players back which as well we are doing right now. That’s going to be really important.”
Jorginho also drew praise from Arteta after the Italian achieved more touches and passes than any of his teammates, with the Spaniard describing Jorginho as “a top player, especially when the opponents have certain behaviours or certain set-up.
“The way I can imagine the game, he is going to have a big impact, but I think you have to do it at this level and when he’s not playing consistently, credit to him because he was magnificent today, again.”
Arteta however iterated that the 32 year-old Italian midfielder isn’t the only player hitting his stride in the team, as he admitted that the team “were outstanding in the way we played and we raised the bar again.”
Acknowledging how difficult Newcastle can be to beat after having lost on Tyneside earlier this season, Arteta quipped: “Newcastle are a top side, they are really well-coached and it’s very difficult to do what we’ve done today, to have them in the positions and to make them suffer like we’ve done, so credit to the boys.”
The win has put Arsenal two points off the Premier League summit and are now unbeaten in six league games, with Arteta confident that his team are back on form after their festive rut but is keen for his players to produce more quality.
“The team is hitting form, we are in a good moment, the players individually are performing. It’s not any secret things are flowing at the moment, we are scoring goals in various ways, and we want more.
“We score one and we want to go for the second and third and the fourth one and I love that mentality from the team.”
Arsenal have scored 13 second-half goals in their last six league matches which marks a huge contrast to last season, where their inability to kill games off ultimately cost them the title but Arteta believes that his Gunners are capable of more goals this time round.
“We have to do that, because we won a lot of games last year, and this year when we deserved more and we generated more, I think today it could’ve been much more as well, but we have to demand ourselves that.
“Maybe we train every day in the best possible way, look after ourselves and first of all believe that you can do it.
“You can always improve, you can always get better and have players back, the more players we have back, more competition within the team, more alternatives, more players to impact the game and especially believe that we can do it.”