In a gutsy display, Arsenal secured a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Sevilla, leaving manager Mikel Arteta elated with his team’s performance in such a hostile environment, and he admitted he was “very happy” after the game. The boss said on Arsenal.com: “I’m really happy. I really liked the determination and the courage that the team played in a stadium like this. [Sevilla] haven’t lost many games in 10 years in Europe and it was incredible to play in this atmosphere. It was a big, big step for us to be able to play the way we played here.
“To come here and to restrict them and control the game like we’ve done and to generate the situation that we’ve generated, big credit because it’s very, very difficult to do that.”
Having said that Arteta realises that the Gunners could have put the game out of reach earlier. “We missed some chances, especially the one with Gabi [Martinelli],” he added. “In the Champions League you aren’t going to create that many, and you have to be ruthless. It’s a shame because we started the second half really well again, scored the goal, and we have big chances to score the third one and we didn’t.
“In the first action they had, they scored from the corner and it’s game on and they can generate momentum. They have a lot of experience to deal with those moments and they really have to suffer and we did that really well.
“We are on a journey still, a lot of games to play for, a lot things can happen, it shows you how difficult it is to win in the Champions League, especially away from home.”
This win catapults the Gunners to the top of Group B, firmly positioning them to extend their lead in the group stages with upcoming back-to-back home fixtures against Sevilla and Lens, we could hopefully secure our place in the knockout stages shortly, which surely must be our minimum target this season.
Sevilla 1-2 Arsenal Highlights – Martinelli and Jesus secure the points
