Arteta also admitted that last season’s loss to Aston Villa motivated him and his players to get the three points.
By Kehinde Okeowo
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has described his side’s narrow 1-0 victory over Aston Villa at Villa Park as a “squad victory”, noting that all the players on the pitch played their part.
He made this known on Monday night after the Gunners went second in the league behind Manchester City following their second consecutive league win of the season.
Bukayo Saka scored the only goal of the encounter to hand Arteta victory in his 250th Premier League match in charge of the North London club.
Reacting to the result, the Spanish tactician attributed the win against Villa to the depth and quality of his squad.
He said: “I think it was a squad victory and everybody that was involved in the game in any capacity made a difference for us. That’s a big message for all of us because with the depth that we have and with the quality that we have, if you really make that count, that’s going to be a massive boost for us.”
ALSO READ: Argentina captain Messi retires from international football
Arteta went on to admit last season’s loss at Villa Park motivated him and his players to get the much-desired win.
He added: “Well, that was the state in my tummy and I spoke to the players about it. That image when the players were on the floor, totally gutted. It was a really difficult one to take and we used that to bring energy, to bring more conviction and belief to understand the difficulty of the challenge that we had ahead, especially against a team that was so successful last year and then lost a few days ago in a really big way.”
On limiting Aston Villa to zero shots on target, he noted: “In the Premier League away from home, when you come to these quality squads and quality coaches who know how to make life really tough for you, you have to be at it. Consistently throughout the game, and individually, we did that really well.”
Arteta, however, while assuring he will try to improve the team, failed to give a definite answer as to whether Arsenal will make signings before transfer deadline day.
”As I said, we’re trying to improve the squad – until tomorrow night we’re going to try to do that. I’ve been disconnected from the world for 24 hours because I think my energy probably has to be on the match, but I will get back on it now.”
Other week 2 English Premier League (EPL) results:
Friday
Crystal Palace 1–4 Man City
Saturday
Liverpool 2–2 Nottingham Forest
Bournemouth 1–1 Everton
Coventry City 0–1 Hull City
Spurs 0–2 Newcastle
Sunday
Chelsea 4–3 Brighton
Leeds United 1–1 Brentford
Sunderland 1–0 Fulham
Man United 5–2 Ipswich
