Mikel Arteta is pleased with the status of the team following Friday’s 1-0 win at home to Ipswich Town.
Making it 17 games unbeaten at Emirates Stadium with victory over the Tractor Boys, our manager felt things could have gone even better.
“Yeah, that’s a big platform to continue,” he said. “We have, in my opinion, dropped some points that we deserved to have on the board. Overall, with everything that we have been through in the first six months of the season, I think the team is in a good position.
“I’m really happy, really happy to win the game, with big parts of the performance of the team [especially] with the clean sheet. It’s so tough to win in this festive period, a lot of games, a lot of distractions and the team performed, and deserved to win the game again.
“The spaces are so tight when you see the stats and what we produced in the first half, the team is trying everything that it can and we don’t give anything away, no shots, nothing at all, which is remarkable. There are always things to improve, to do better but overall the team was very solid.
“With the level in this league, you know what’s coming. They start to throw everybody forward, very direct, you concede one or two set-pieces and you’re going to defend deep.
“We’ve done it, without again conceding a shot, so it’s more the suffering and the fact that you want to close the game, than actually what they generated.”
A special mention was given to Myles Lewis-Skelly, the youngster who Declan Rice described as being “built in a lab” for his fantastic performance against Ipswich.
“He’s been exceptional,” Mikel added. “I think it’s the first time that he’s played the full match – really consistent, attacking and defending, so focused and with a lot of initiative, and as you said, he’s showing great personality, it’s a big step for him to play at the level that he’s playing [at]. He was really good today.”
Next up, we travel to Brentford for our first game of 2025. It’s a 5.30pm kick-off at Gtech Community Stadium on Wednesday.
“It will be very tough and when you look at the numbers and what they’ve done this season, especially at home, it’s remarkable,” Mikel said. “Let’s analyse the game, train well and we’ll be ready.”
