Mikel Arteta was delighted that his team used the experience of last weekend’s north London derby to recover from conceding late in the first half but still beat Chelsea.
We were leading 1-0 through William Saliba’s opener before a Piero Hincapie own goal in stoppage time saw us go in at the break goalless, in a similar situation to where we found ourselves at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium exactly a week earlier.
But just as we did then, we rallied to come back and ultimately score again to collect another big win, and once again reestablish our five-point lead at the top of the Premier League table. That delighted the boss, who was proud of his players for using their past experiences to garner the belief needed to get the result we desired.
“It was a big win,” he said. “I was very happy for big parts of the game and the performance that we put in against a top side, coming after a London derby and the expectations and the will that we have to continue to win.
“The timing of the goal that we conceded was a big blow but emotionally we reacted, it was exactly what we needed to stay focused and go.
“It was a really dominant first half, but the margins were nothing. We said seven days ago, we were in the same position against Spurs, and we learned from that and look what happened in the second half.
“So, we tried to generate the same kind of game, it was a more even game in the second half, we had some periods, they had some periods,. We scored the goal and after they went down to 10 men we expected to be okay. We weren’t and credit to them as well for what they’ve done. But overall, very happy because this was a very, very important game.”
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Mikel was also delighted that we managed to win two massive London derbies against a pair of our biggest rivals back-to-back, and make it nine games unbeaten in all competitions as we continue to fight for four trophies this term.
With six points collected from two massive tests, we now head to Brighton & Hove Albion looking to make that nine from three, and try to extend our gap at the summit before continuing our fight for the FA Cup and Champions League in the coming weeks.
“Winning those big games is so difficult, so big credit to the boys for what they’re doing and so consistently,” Mikel added. “We’ve played 44 games already this season, which is something incredible and the manner in which they go about their jobs and how much they want to compete and be better than their opposition is just phenomenal.
“We want to recover now really well, keep that energy and now is a big game coming up on Wednesday, so let’s get ready for it.”
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