After seeing his side dig deep to squeeze past Wolves 2-1 with a stoppage-time winner, Mikel Arteta feels his team earned “a big three points”.
We were leading 1-0 going into the 90th minute when the visitors drew level through Tolu Arokodare, and it seemed that our time at the top of the Premier League was in severe jeopardy. However, three minutes after rallying from that setback, Bukayo Saka’s cross was nodded into his own net by Yerman Mosquera to hand us a precious win.
And while Mikel was grateful to end the night victorious, he was adamant that there was much to improve and work on to ensure that we don’t find ourselves in a similar position again.
Reflecting on the game, he said: “A big three points, especially the way things turned out at the end. In the first half we generated a lot of situations into very dangerous areas without creating big chances from that, so we had to really improve the efficiency in the last delivery, the last pass, because the movement and the options were in the box there time after time, but we didn’t take them. We missed a massive clear chance with Gabi two yards away, which should have been a goal.
“In the second half we adjusted a few things, we were more efficient, we generated more chances and scored a goal. But then we had a period of two minutes where we had to sit deep because they committed a lot of players, we could not press them in that moment, and our defensive habits were terrible. And when that happens, even though we didn’t concede a single shot throughout the game, they just needed that action to score a goal and put the game into a really difficult position.
“So, thank God at the end we reacted, [Bukayo] put a great ball in the box, Gabby touched it, I think it was an own goal, if not Mikel is there as well and Leo is there to put it in the back of the net and thank God we won the game.
“I want to see the character before, when we score the goal and we have to prevent them scoring, that’s why we had to show the character at the end.”
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The boss was full of praise for Gabriel Jesus, who was announced as the scorer of our winning goal, but replays showed that Yerson Mosquera got the final touch that saw one point turn back into two.
However the run of the striker into the box drew the Wolves man to the action and forced the error, and Mikel was thrilled to see that cleverness and sharpness already return to the Brazilian’s game despite missing the past 11 months through injury.
Now with a full week to work with Gabby and the rest of the squad, Mikel is looking to get everyone back to up to speed with a solid week of training after a punishing fixture list.
On Jesus, Mikel said: “He showed that in midweek as well and we are delighted to have him, you could see the reaction of the crowd as well with him. He’s another one that is in a good moment and looks a threat, so very positive.
“There are a few days for the boys after a very tight schedule to reset and then come back and start to train as well. Certain things slowly deteriorate because we don’t have [time] to train them, and [we need to] pick up because the Christmas period is coming and we know how important that is.”
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