Arteta happy to hit more milestones and records Interview News

Mikel Arteta was delighted that he managed to clinch victory against Manchester United on the 500th competitive men’s match at Emirates Stadium and mark the occasion appropriately.

Goals from Jurrien Timber and William Saliba grabbed us all three points against the Red Devils to record our fourth straight league win against the Red Devils for the first time ever, and the boss admits that those little slices of history do matter to him and our players.

“It’s good for everything that we can contribute to make this club bigger and better and more efficient - that’s what we are trying to do,” he said post-match. “It’s a very special night against an opponent with a lot of history.

“I think the team was excellent, the energy in the stadium was amazing, so I’m very happy to celebrate that day with a massive victory for us. A fourth win in a row in a really convincing way, scoring two goals and not conceding a goal with a lot of players that haven’t played that much, but showed me again and the team that they are ready when needed.”

Mikel was referring to Jakub Kiwior and Oleksandr Zinchenko who came into our backline tonight after Gabriel and Riccardo Calafiori were ruled out, and put in solid displays to help us to a clean sheet.

The boss reserved special praise for the duo, as well as his goalkeeper David Raya who made a couple of outstanding saves on either side of our second goal, including a world-class stop to prevent Matthijs de Ligt from netting an equaliser, five minutes before Saliba doubled the lead.

“The way they train every single day and it’s not easy – for Jakub it was his first Premier League start, and it was Alex’s second [this season] after the first game here against Wolves. They both performed at the highest level against this kind of opposition, after not playing a lot, is very tough. So, very pleased and grateful for them.

“You really need to dig in against this kind of opposition. We tweaked a few things at half-time, the team had a bit more clarity, a bit more efficiency, we did the simple things much better, and the game opened up a little bit more. We had some big chances in open play and then we scored from two set pieces.

“We haven’t conceded anything and on that action that comes from a throw-in that we don’t execute well, we gave the foul away and then they create the chance and David is there to save us.”