Mikel Arteta was full of pride after watching Arsenal grind out a 2-0 win at Newcastle that keeps them in the title race and confirms a top-two finish.
After weathering a fast start by the home side, the Gunners started to dominate the ball and deservedly took the lead through Martin Odegaard’s long-range effort on 14 minutes.
Eddie Howe’s side continued to threaten either side of the break but couldn’t find a way past the inspired Aaron Ramsdale before Gabriel Martinelli forced an own goal from Fabian Schar with 19 minutes remaining.
Here’s what the boss had to say when he spoke to Sky Sports.
On what he feels after that win…
Pride. I think they showed what it takes to come here, in this environment, against a great team, what it takes to win. The desire to keep digging, keep believing that the reward is so big and today we had to do it here and we did everything we had to do to win the game.
On the win being all the more important because of what happened last year…
It is. Sport, in general, gives you another opportunity and you’re privileged to have another opportunity, so you have to take it. But to take it, you have to learn from those moments. You really have to see yourselves and how you felt in those moments to overcome it and act in a different way. The team did that really well today.
On using a clip from the ‘All or Nothing’ documentary to remind the players of the pain they felt last year…
You have to go through the pain, you have to see yourself and how you felt the emotion in the moment. You cannot forget that. In sport, if you want to become better you have to recognise in any moment that you can have that feeling and it’s a horrible feeling, you don’t want to have it again. So you have to make the most of it [the new opportunity] and then you might lose, because this is sport but it had to be different today.
On Jorginho’s performance…
He was exceptional. He was man of the match. There were question marks because it was going to be really physical but you want to go physicality against physicality, we’d have no chance to win the game, so we had to try for something different. I think he understood the game really well, he’s a really intelligent player, he gives a lot of security to the team. He dominated the game in many moments.
On an uncomfortable start to the game…
Yes, it was more intense and not as good [from Arsenal] as I wanted. But we had to keep going. We knew that we’re going to have moments, I didn’t know if it was in the first minutes or before half time or at the end, but you know this crowd and this team have the ability to create those moments and you have to go through them. If you don’t, you don’t win here for sure.
On the importance of Odegaard’s goal…
Yeah, that gave a lot composure to the team and belief and it put the game in a different perspective. They have to hurry up, they have to make decisions, they could not play the game that they want to play. That helped us a lot.
On Ramsdale’s contribution…
We knew that we were going to need him and he had two or three great saves in key moments. That’s what you need, individual performances at their best if you want to win here.
On being proud of his defenders…
Absolutely. They die for every single ball, some of the blocks, the defensive actions, the way we defended the box in many moments, it was very different to the last few away games where we conceded sloppy goals. We needed that, so I’m very proud of them.
On the win reminding critics how far his team have come in the last 12 months…
We live the day. Today, we have shown what we’re capable of doing. Now we have to play Brighton at home which is going to be really tricky and do that. That’s the beauty of this league, it’s never enough because the standards are so high you have to ask better of yourself every time.
On a statement win…
I don’t know. We’re going to keep believing and digging. That’s all we can do now.
