Arteta proud of his firing Gunners
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said he expects senior players who stood out in a 3-1 win over Leicester City to keep up the good work in the club’s bid to secure European competition next season and keep advancing in this term’s Europa League.
The Gunners fought back from a goal down to beat the Foxes on Sunday three days after producing an equally impressive comeback in a 3-2 home defeat of Benfica in the Europa League, which secured a 4-3 aggregate win.
Arsenal fell behind at Leicester to an early Youri Tielemans goal but stormed back through David Luiz, Alexandre Lacazette and Nicolas Pepe, with Brazilian midfielder Willian also putting in a superb performance.
“I am really proud of the team and the character that we showed,” Arteta told BT Sport. “A disappointing start again as we conceded an early goal but we looked composed and overall I think we deserved to win.
“The senior players are the ones who have to drive the boat forward and the young players can add something, but it can’t be the other way around. They have to take that leadership and be accountable when they are in the team.”
With a top-six finish in the Premier League back in sight, Arteta urged his team to push on after making six changes to the side that beat Benfica and said that squad rotation is aimed at rewarding the players for their hard work.
“You can use any words to motivate players but at the end of the day you have to be in the field and I am so pleased that even though we made a lot of changes we were able to produce this result,” he said.
“It’s not that we have to rotate. I want to rotate because I want to give that chance to the players. They deserve it for how they turn up every day.”
Arteta also singled out Pepe who was a menace all afternoon and said ninth-placed Arsenal still has to meet their high standards in the league.
“Nicolas Pepe has been really consistent and this is what we want from him,” the Spaniard told the BBC.
Gareth Bale produced his most impressive performance since returning on loan to Tottenham Hotspur with two goals in his side’s 4-0 win over Burnley.
The Welshman continued his recent resurgence by marking only his third league start of the season with the opening goal after only two minutes, prodding in from close range.
He then set up Harry Kane for Tottenham’s second after 15 minutes before Lucas Moura made it 3-0 before halftime.
Bale then claimed his second of the game with a clinical finish after 55 minutes as Tottenham returned to form in the league having lost five of their previous six games.
The impressive win left Tottenham in eighth spot with 39 points from 25 games and revived their hopes of finishing in the top four. Burnley are 15th with 28 points.
Fulham lacked the cutting edge in front of goal in their 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace and settled for a point at Selhurst Park in their quest to climb out of the Premier League’s relegation zone.
The result meant that Scott Parker’s 18th-placed side are unbeaten in five league matches and have 23 points from 26 games to sit three points behind Newcastle United and Brighton & Hove Albion, but they were left to rue their missed opportunities.