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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was impressed with his much-changed team’s performance in the 3-0 win over Bodo/Glimt on Thursday.
THE LOWDOWN: IMPRESSIVE DISPLAY
The Gunners returned to Europa League action after the north London derby triumph last Saturday, and despite the multitude of changes made by the manager, they still recorded a commanding 3-0 win at the Emirates Stadium.
Goals from Eddie Nketiah, Rob Holding and Fabio Vieira were all the Gunners needed to take absolute control of the group. The performance and result left the manager happy, and he was pretty vocal about that and other things in the post-match presser.
THE LATEST: HAPPY MANAGER
After seeing his team claim a comfortable 3-0 win against Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League, Arteta was excited to see his much-changed line-up record such a convincing performance and scoreline.
Speaking after the game, he said: “I’m really happy. Today we played a different opponent, a difficult opponent, I mentioned that before and I think everybody saw that.
“We made a lot of changes, eight I think, and I’m really happy winning the game, scoring three goals and a clean sheet, but overall as well you could sense in certain moments that that connection, that timing – this needed time on the pitch. It was a little bit missing in certain moments to be more dominant in the game.”
Nketiah and Vieira were praised by the gaffer for their run of form in front of the goal, with Arteta saying: “Eddie is always ready. Every time he plays you look at the numbers and the stats he produces, it’s phenomenal, and today he had a chance to play and I think he took it really well.
“[Vieira] is understanding better every day what we want to do. There were a few moments in defending and in terms of organisation that we need to work a lot on him, but you see the talent, you see the creativity and how dangerous he is in the final third.”
Both sides will meet again next Thursday in a different environment in Norway, and Arteta believes that it will be a tougher outing.
Previewing next week’s clash, he added: “It will be in a different context. It’s in their home and it’s an astroturf pitch and we’re not used to it so we’ll have to adapt quickly.
“You saw today that it is a team that is really willing to play, that have really good patterns of play, good players, an obvious philosophy and again, so it will be tough.”
THE VERDICT: GOOD SHOWING
It’s good to see some of the lesser-seen squad members prove themselves in a European game like this.
It continues to assure the manager that there are capable replacements in the team if there is any need to replace the usual starters for Premier League action.
