MY ACCOUNT
Mikel Arteta praised Arsenal for their patience against Newcastle United after a lack of “composure” in the first half of their 2-0 win.
The Gunners opened the scoring for the 17th top-flight game against Newcastle in a row as Bukayo Saka drove into the bottom-right corner.
Gabriel Martinelli doubled the lead just 93 seconds after his introduction as the Magpies became the sixth different team to fail to win any of their opening 13 Premier League games of a season.
Arteta was pleased with the showing given his side’s 4-0 defeat to Liverpool last time out.
“I am happy with the points after losing [to Liverpool],” Arteta told BT Sport post-match. “You have to win straight away. Overall, I’m pleased.
“The word was we had to be patient. We had to play with urgency and rhythm. That’s what we did in the second half. We found spaces and that’s how we scored the goals.”
Arsenal attempted 12 shots in the first half – the second-most attempts in the opening 45 minutes of a Premier League game this term, behind Manchester United’s 15 against Aston Villa – and Arteta felt they were a little too trigger-happy early on.
“When you have chances, you have to put them in the net,” he continued. “In the first half we shot from every range without composure.”
A slight dampener on the Gunners’ win came when Saka was forced off in the second half and Arteta explained the 20-year-old “wasn’t comfortable” after “he felt something.”
However, he was delighted to see Saka’s replacement Martinelli score his first Premier League goal since January 2020 just 93 seconds after coming on.
“The movement, the pass from Tomi [Takehiro Tomiyasu] is great,” he added on the second goal. “It’s really difficult to keep the ball down when it’s flying over your head but that’s what he can do.”
