The impressive triumph sealed the Gunners passage to the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League.
Read on for all that Arteta discussed during his post-match press conference:
on the match being a game you dream of:
I didn’t even dream like this, but we had the chance to qualify today and become top of the group and we’ve done it in a really convincing way against a really good side and I think the team right from the beginning showed a lot of aggression and determination to go for the game, everything happened in the right way especially in the first 30 minutes and that was really helpful to win the game.
on qualifying with a game to spare with the Christmas fixtures coming:
I don’t know, let’s see how we get to that game, now the job is done with what we wanted to achieve, every time we to play a football match, we want to win it and we prepare it in the best possible way but it gives us some room certainly, in relation to the squad to use some players more or less.
on whether that result was a statement victory in the Champions League:
It’s a great that we are able to win in this way, but I think consistently we have shown at home not to concede any goals, and score a lot of goals, that’s a really positive factor, those players need to have those experiences, and believe that we can do it against big opponents, now let’s wait, we have to park it and in February we will know who we are facing and let’s see how we are in that moment.
on Gabriel’s celebration when making a big tackle:
When the team has that body language believing every game, every action the way we do, good things are going to come and like the crowd they wanted more. They celebrated, they play every single ball with us and when there’s that connection, it’s really powerful, the team wants to win, they don’t want to concede anything, that’s the mentality that we need to become better.
on the difference between today’s opponent and facing a low block:
It’a a different kind of game, I talked about game state and that’s a crucial thing as well and it’s true they have a different behaviour to many teams, especially in our phase of build up because they are really aggressive man to man, and we exploited that really, really well.on what we would do if he was facing this Arsenal side:
I am not going to tell you that’s for sure.
on Tomiyasu’s performance against RC Lens:
I think he was excellent, he has played a lot of minutes, and we have a really congested period. We are very short at the back at the moment and we had to use the score to make some changes and give some rest and minutes to other players.
on Saka’s aggression being added to his game:
That’s a different edge to score ugly goals as well and be involved in this action that gives an advantage to your teammate and he did it as well against Burnley when he won that header for Leo, and that’s a different kind of aggression that’s good in this game and that’s a really positive thing to see.
on what confidence the result can give our players:
With him [Saka], with everybody, Gabriel Jesus as well is in tremendous form in the Champions League, today we share six different scorers, so that’s great that the team has this capacity, Kai again scored two goals in two games, that’s really good for the confidence of the players.
on Havertz scoring in back-to-back games:
Yes, scoring goals, playing well, participating in wins; those are positive attributes. You’ve seen the reception of his team-mates, the crowd singing his name and being with him in every positive action that he had, those are all good things that are going to help him to show why he’s a tremendous player.
on whether the midfield three is his ideal first choice:
Well, I think we have different options, and in relation to the opponents we are facing, we have. Today, we were really attacking because we played with Alex as well in the backline, and we needed it because we wanted to approach the game to win it, and be very dominant from the beginning, and I think we have achieved that.
on how Declan Rice has settled into the team:
He was superb again today. The consistency that he’s showing, the understanding of the game, the decision-making all the time and then the action. And the timing that he’s got to win the ball back to give the line of pass to break the team, the speed that he plays when the ball gets around him, I think he’s been so good.
on the reaction from the team after the first result against RC Lens:
It was the feeling of what we learnt with that defeat. Defeats give you a lot of things to think about and take the learnings from that. Credit to them, they are a really good side and they’re really well coached, they make life very difficult, but today we were really effective.on not taking Martin Odegaard off:
We have five subs and we’re very short in certain areas as well, we had to prioritise who to rest, and he as well hasn’t accumulated that many minutes in the last six or seven weeks, so we asked him how he was and he’s fine, and he managed himself a bit in the second half, and he was fine.
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