Mikel Arteta has told his Arsenal team that they will have to do better than their performance against West Ham, despite picking up all three points.
The Gunners were far from impressive as they beat West Ham in the Premier League in last night’s late game, but a few top performances were enough to get them over the line.
The manager has now admitted that he was ecstatic to win the tie, having known the result would not be easy to come by, but urged his side to ‘get better’ having been wasteful.
“I’m thrilled with the three points again. I knew the type of opponent we had in front of us and the way they play, how difficult it was going to be,” he told the BBC after the match.
“We made it even more difficult for ourselves with the amount of balls we gave away and spaces we left for the opponent.
“But I’m glad we found the right moment and reactions; we kept competing and believing in the final 20 minutes to win the game. There are still a lot of things we need to get better at.”
Arteta moved onto praise the performance of match-winner Eddie Nketiah, who he claims will bring the best out of his other players.
“He can do that every week, he’s a player who will push everyone else because he’s hungry and he’s got a great talent to score goals.
“We need people from the bench to come in and contribute and he was really helpful to win the points.”
The performance was far from ideal, but the sign of true champions is one that can continue to push on and grind out those results, and that could well be the only positive to take out of the viewing.
Do we have to take positives having won all three points?
Patrick
3 points a positive? I would like to think so. But the doom merchants would probably say that 1 poor performance is a clear sign we suck.
A realist (This one is for you Jon Fox) would take 3 points, acknowledge it as a bad day in the office and trust miracle worker Arteta continue his restructuring of the club that will likely take a couple of seasons before it is done.
Lol… Calm down, they all expected West Ham to be a walkover, I saw I all the predictions, all the 3-0, 4-1, someone even said 5-0, so trust me winning yesterday was not positive because West Ham tried getting a point out of it😂😂😂
The performance wasn’t the best, even Arteta admitted we need to be better, but nah, we’re already reading comments we’re ending up 6th
Kstix
Don’t beat yourself up on Leno v Martinez
Obviously Leno has been in the big time for longer but Martinez surprised me by his assured performances…. right from when he had to step in after the injury. Purely based on his performances afterwards I’d have had him as no1 BUT Arteta took a different view. It’s not as if Leno isn’t a top goalie. Some of the other so called top GK’s have been having a torrid time too
We all have the right to put our opinions out on JA and the freedom to do so (without being cruel )is our right in a democracy
Oops
That was obviously a reply to Kstix 🙄
Thank you SueP, really appreciate that coming from you. And I agree even the best players can have an off-day sometimes. I look forward to the next game proudly supporting the team and the coach
Eddie
I’ll be the first to own up that I expected a better outcome
I also thought Palace would draw and Newcastle would win and I never thought bl**dy Tottenham would stuff Southampton
I was obviously over enthusiastic luck a fair few others
Precisely what I WILL do!
Many positives to take, even though the perf was truly average. Workrat , closing down, the fact that our manager will learn more from this perf than from a handsome win , as weaknesses are more obvious to see. The almost certain fact that the rank bad Kolas will not wear our shirt in Prem games ever again and will be gone by windows end. To think he was once called THE TANK. That “tank” was long ago blown apart by opponents then!
Another positive is that this manager will not allow this team to be SO poor again. They kept on trying even though nothing much went right, which is a sign of a dressing room with internal belief. In fact, the same belief in MA that , IMO, made Auba extend.
Many clubs will face early burn out from the lack of a proper close season and this below par perf will be common, even with the very top teams. Man Utd, who have hardly played as yet, clearly were rusty against lowly Palace and we will be far from alone in a perf below our best becoming, occasionally, what happens. This is a not often spoken of factor of this pandemic and may work in our favour at times. So yes, plenty of positives from this realist, though a few negatives too but in proper context, hopefully.
I love the realist in Arteta. He’s obviously happy with the win but he’s not blind to the fact that we were awful(West ham made us work so hard, kudos to them) and I’m glad he saw the same problems we all saw. Looking forward to the Liverpool game now. They smashed Chelsea today and mane was brilliant again. I hope we bring the right intensity against them next like we did in previous games. I can’t wait for the headline that reads “Klopp yet to defeat Arteta’s Arsenal” would be joy to see. And P.S I came for Leno yesterday based on the shaky performance, he’s a goalkeeper I really like and support but if he has a bad day, I’ll criticise him like any other player but still support him in the next game. The emotions were high yesterday, I was literally scared, I can’t make that up. I probably shouldn’t have said we should sell him but Heck it would be joy to have both he and Martinez in our squad, only wish martinez was content on fighting for the number 1 shirt. I hope the way people come to the defence of Leno is the way they support every other player including ex players in iwobi and Walcott despite giving their best when they were here(oh the bashing they both received on a recent thread). Their best wasn’t good enough for arsenal(agreed) but they’re professionals and they’ve put in a good shift at one point or the other for the club even down to kolasinac(there was a time we used to call him the “tank”, we should all remember we liked him at some point too). So Good luck to them wherever their career takes them. Here’s to a new supportive me, I would criticise players based on performance on each game day but will give them my undying support every game(yes, and that includes a certain Mr Ozil)
I love this. Thank you. We aint supporting Leno’s weakness but wished Emi had stayed back and fight for the no 1 position which he may have easily and rightly win fairly.
Thanks Uncle Josh 👍👍
Kstix
I left a reply under Eddie 🙄
Thank you SueP👏👏