After three home defeats in a row, Arsenal needed a confidence booster ahead of Sunday’s North London Derby against Tottenham and that was duly provided by our 4-1 victory over Rapid Wien last night.
Arsenal were on top from the start and despite a few glaring misses we could have doubled our goals four, although Arteta wasn’t complaining too much after the game. Yes, we have been really consistent in this competition.”the boss told Arsenal.com.
“I think the boys showed a great energy, character and aggression today. Right from the beginning you could feel they were touched from the last defeat and everyone individually played a really good game.
“In the final third we were really aggressive with the ball, we created many chances, scored four goals and probably should have scored more – and now let’s take that into Sunday, a very special game, we are all looking forward to it, and let’s do it all again.”
In terms of the importance of the match, it was not a must-win game for our chances to qualify for the knockout stages, but Arteta was pleased with the energy and the hunger to score goals without the incentive. He continued. “I’ve said before, I’ve seen the passion and I’ve seen the energy in the last few games. There were moments that the moment you take your foot a little bit off the pedal, or the moment you lose a little bit of focus in the Premier League, you get punished. The margin that we are losing games is very small and in Europe at the moment you have a little bit bigger margin, and you need to know that. But I’m really pleased with the work that they’ve done today and I think the 11 of the team had a real purpose on the game, even though we have qualified.
“This is the spirit that I want to see every single day.”
One has to agree that we have not seen that passion in the first team lately, and perhaps we need some of these hungry youngsters brought into our Premier League games and see if their energy can rub off on their seniors?