Mikel Arteta couldn’t hide his delight following Arsenal’s dominant display at the Emirates Stadium that produced a 4-0 win against Everton on Wednesday night.
The Gunners who had to toil for the three points against Leicester in their previous game were made to wait untill the 40th minute for an opener, but once Bukayo Saka broke the deadlock with a smashing strike, the Toffees were in for a beating.
Gabriel Martinelli doubled Arsenal’s lead before the break before netting his second with ten minutes left on the clock, but In between his brace, was Martin Odegaard’s goal.
It was a statement performance that Arsenal needed to produce having lost to Sean Dyche’s team at the start of last month. Arteta after the game told journalists that;
“I’m really happy. It was the game that we had in hand against an opponent that we knew were going to make life really difficult for us. We experienced that at Goodison.
“We started the game with some frustration, not really understanding what we had to do, allowing them to run in certain transitions, but after 20 or 25 minutes I think we started to get much better and I think the timing of the first two goals was key.
“We needed a magic moment there and Alex [Zinchenko] and ‘B’ [Bukayo Saka] produced it. And then the team grew, especially with Thomas [Partey], because Jorgi wasn’t feeling good today.”When he came on, he really gave some presence and some stability to the team, and I think the second half was superb.”
Each of Saka and Martinelli reached double figures in the league this season with their respective goals. Saka’s strike took his tally to 10 while the Brazilian made it 11 goals with his brace, making Arsenal the only Premier League team to have two players reach double figures this term. On their performance, Arteta said:
“Credit to them, because in the end, they have to do it themselves, but we try to help them with our way of playing to get them in those positions as much as possible.
“They are so willing to learn. They are asking for more every single day. They never have enough information. They want more, about the defenders, the space, the practice.
“In the end, when you have that, and you have the talent they have and the ideas they have, good things will happen.”
That victory took table topping Arsenal five points clear of Man City who sit second. Arteta and his team return to action on Saturday when they welcome 19th placed Bournemouth to Emirates.
