After ending a 5-year wait for an away win against a top six side in the league, Mikel Arteta thinks it is time to close the gap on the big boys in the league.
Since Mikel Arteta took charge, we have recorded impressive wins against the top sides in the country. With wins over Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United all in the bag.
Mikel Arteta insists we need to get these type of results regularly if we want to challenge the top sides.
“We have to beat the top teams if we want to be fighting with them,” Arteta told Arsenal.com.
“It’s something we haven’t been able to do in the last few years, especially away from home. We have to improve. There is that gap and we have to make it as small as possible, as quick as possible. This is the challenge that we are facing.”
Having lost to Leicester last time out, Mikel Arteta was impressed with how we bounced back.
“It came back through my mind with what happened against Leicester, a game that we really dominated where we were the better team in the first half.
“In the second half then, we couldn’t find a way to win the game. Today we’ve done it and we looked very mature.
“The way we managed the last few minutes is getting better and better. We have people coming off the bench really helping, and individually the players who were required at that stage had a great game.”
Mohamed Elneny put in a brilliant performance in midfield along with Thomas Partey. He insists that the boys knew the goal would come due to the brilliant shape of the team.
“It feels really amazing, I feel really happy,” Elneny told Arsenal.com.
“It is special to win against Manchester United here. We know it is a long time since we won here. We gave 100 per cent and everyone worked really hard for it.
“We know how special it is for us, that’s why we gave everything to win this game.
“No [we weren’t concerned about not scoring in the first half] because we spoke and said we have to keep on our game, even if we miss.
“We knew we were going to score because our shape was really good today and everyone just gave 100 per cent. We created more chances to score. But we didn’t worry, we knew we were going to win this game.”
