Izuchukwu OkosiArsenal manager Mikel Arteta spoke to the media on his team’s Europa League win on Thursday against Bodo/Glimt at the Emirates Stadium on Thursday evening.
Arteta made eight changes to the starting XI and was delighted with our overall performance.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe following are excerpts of the coach’s quotes after the 3-0 convincing win over the Norwegian side.
On how he rated the players’ performance…
What I would give is that every game is difficult to win and what we done today is make a lot of changes and giving players who fully deserve the minutes to play, so I’m really happy with the result, scoring three goals and keeping a clean sheet, but as well I’m very conscious that there are many things that we can do much better, especially the way we dominated the game in certain periods.
On why he made three substitutions shortly after the restart…
Well, some of them haven’t played a lot of minutes and we could tell that they were getting tired as well. There were players that needed minutes without overloading them for Sunday and it worked pretty well.
On what the next step is for Arsenal players trying to break into the Premier League XI…
The same as the others, keep doing better and better. There are still a lot of things individually and collectively that need to be done better and they need to keep their standards as high as possible and to try to reach the next level and the next level. It’s nothing different to the ones that didn’t play.
On Fabio Vieira and whether the fans should be excited…
Yes, you saw the quality. Every time he’s around the box he’s a real threat, really intelligent player and brave. In defending he still needs to do more and understand it more because organisation is key when you play against good teams in ball possession.
On Jesus’ impressive work rate when he came on…
I love his mentality. It doesn’t matter how long he players, when he plays, in which position. He always gives absolutely everything. You see his pressing when he goes on the pitch, it makes the team different. His energy as well. Obviously today he (made) an outstanding action, to create the third goal.
Arsenal’s next commitment is a huge Premier League meeting against Liverpool on Sunday at 4.30pm.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
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