Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has admitted that his players watched Manchester City’s 2-1 home loss to Brentford on the bus on the way to Wolves on Saturday afternoon.
The Gunners faced a difficult test at Molineux on Saturday night, but before that, the squad witnessed Pep Guardiola’s side suffer a shock defeat at the hands of the Bees. Two goals from Ivan Toney on either side of Phil Foden’s first-half rocket were enough to hand City their second defeat of the season.
Toney’s second goal came deep into second-half stoppage time, and Arteta admitted it elicited a strong reaction from his team. When asked what his team thought of Brentford’s 97th-minute winner, the Arsenal manager simply said, “You can imagine.”
Arteta will have been even more pleased with the way his own team handled the threat of Wolves, winning 2-0 on the road to ensure the Gunners will be five points clear at the top of the table at Christmas.
Arsenal earned a hard-fought three points thanks to two goals from captain Martin Odegaard. Despite Wolves’ threat at times, Gunners goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale was rarely called upon during the 90-minute match.
Even after Arsenal’s victory and City’s defeat, Arsene Wenger was not about to get ahead of himself. “Our goal is to improve every day, and we still have things to work on,” Arteta admitted.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve been in this position; it’s a complete transformation from the fans’ energy and passion, which they’ve passed on to these players.”
We demonstrated another level of maturity today in playing their game, as we struggled to break them down in the first 20-30 minutes.
“We were much better in the second half, and we had a little more courage and took risks while not letting them run.”
After the game, Ramsdale echoed his manager’s sentiments, insisting that Arsenal’s comfortable lead over title rivals City isn’t yet meaningful.
“Every win is very important for us – away from home and at home,” the Arsenal shot-stopper said.
“This place is difficult to get to, and they demonstrated that for 45 minutes.” Massive win going into the break and a bit of a bumper, but it really doesn’t matter.”
West Ham host Arsenal in their first game back from the World Cup break, as their title challenge takes shape – something few would have predicted before a ball was kicked this season.