Arsenal verdict: Arteta has taught Gunners how to win ugly.. they’d have wilted in face of West Ham pressure last year
ARSENAL showed real guts to dig in and grind out an ugly three points against a team who at times thoroughly outplayed them.
Sound familiar? Well this proves 2020 really is the year to end all years.
In past seasons this is exactly the type of game that Arsenal would have got nothing out of.
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Fans would expect three points at home to the Irons.
But that was perhaps delusions of grandeur – and met with a well-drilled David Moyes side and the constantly dangerous Michail Antonio, they would have crumbled.
Not now.
Not with Mikel Arteta instilling a certain steeliness in his troops.
It helps when you have a match winner like Eddie Nketiah sitting on the bench too.
The 21-year-old struck five minutes from time to continue Arsenal’s perfect start to the season.
The good news is that Arteta will only demand more from his players after this.
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And if there is one area he will definitely expect improvement in then it will be the middle of the park.
Creative opportunities through Granit Xhaka and Dani Ceballos were lacking and they will need to be more ruthless and precise against the league’s top teams.
As it was, Alexandre Lacazette’s opener came from a lovely cross from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
And to be fair, Ceballos did redeem himself with the assist for Nketiah’s winner.
But where has this new-found backbone come from?
There is more of a snarl and a menace to Arsenal’s play now – less of a preoccupation with scoring the perfect goal.
Maybe that’s what winning silverware does – last season’s FA Cup and the Community Shield this season.
As they say, winning breeds winning.