Mikel Arteta praised Arsenal’s determination as they secured a hard-fought 1-0 victory over fierce rivals Tottenham on Sunday, despite missing key players Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard.
Arsenal captain Odegaard was sidelined with an ankle injury picked up on international duty with Norway, while Rice was serving a suspension following his red card against Brighton. Nevertheless, the title contenders showed resilience, capitalizing on Tottenham’s wasteful finishing before Gabriel Magalhaes scored the decisive goal in the second half, marking his first goal since February.
The victory extended Arsenal’s unbeaten run, with three wins from four Premier League games, as they continue their pursuit of their first title since 2004 after finishing second in the last two seasons.
“Super happy, obviously. We know what it means for our club and our people to win a north London derby,” Arteta said. “We had moments where we had to suffer and adapt due to some players we lost. I prepared for Tottenham for five days, then in one moment I lost one player, and in another, I lost another. I didn’t sleep much!”
“There were no excuses, no crying. The players have thick skin, they love the game. Sometimes, to win, you have to do the ugly things, and they love to do that. I loved it because day after day, the players are hungrier and hungrier.”
Arsenal have now won on their last three trips to Tottenham and have only lost once in their last eight encounters with their bitter rivals, that being in May 2022. The Gunners sit in second place, two points behind Manchester City, as they gear up for a challenging week ahead, starting with their Champions League opener at Atalanta on Thursday, followed by a visit to face Pep Guardiola’s champions.
Reflecting on their latest derby triumph, Arteta said, “We’ve won three years in a row here. That’s a big thing in the history of the club.”
Mikel Arteta acknowledged the challenging week ahead for Arsenal but expressed confidence in his squad, saying, “It is a tough week coming up. The players already believe. We’ve won a lot of big games, but this will give us a lot of energy and belief.”
Arsenal’s strength at set-pieces has been a major factor in their success, with the Gunners scoring more goals from dead-ball situations (23) than any other Premier League team since the start of last season. Arteta credited Nicolas Jover, Arsenal’s set-piece coach, whom he brought from Manchester City, for the team’s proficiency in this area.
“I made the decision to bring him to City when I was there and then to Arsenal,” Arteta said. “Together with the rest of the staff, they’ve injected the belief that there are many ways to win games, and this is one of them, so big credit to them.”
On the other side, Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou faced another frustrating north London derby. Despite Tottenham’s struggles defending set-pieces, which were exposed by Arsenal, Postecoglou did not attribute the loss solely to that weakness.
“We had some good opportunities, but we could have had so many more. We wasted our good play, similar to other games when we haven’t had the conviction in the front third. You keep opponents in the game when you do that,” he said.
Addressing Tottenham’s set-piece issues, Postecoglou added, “We handled them well for the most part. We switched off for one and paid the price. It wasn’t just Romero, it was a couple of others. There’s a narrative for some reason that people think I don’t care about set-pieces. We work on them all the time.”
