The manager of Arsenal football club, Mikel Arteta has described his team victory over Norwich City on Saturday, September 11, as the best week of his managerial career.
The Premier League game was Arsenal’s fourth game of the season. Recall that Arsenal have recorded three successive defeats in their first three games of the Premier League season. Hence, they were not expected to make any mistake against Norwich City at the Emirates Stadium.
Though the home supporters were solidly behind Mikel Arteta and his players to get their first win against a struggling Norwich City, some of the home fans mocked the club by chanting “we are staying up” in a sarcastic manner.
Recall that Arsenal went into the game against Norwich City when they were rooted at the bottom of the Premier League table. Instead of being seen as Premier League title contenders, they are seen as a club struggling to escape relegation.
With such an embarrassing status, it was clear that if Mikel Arteta and his boys fail to beat Norwich City that are yet to win a Premier League game this season, the club’s fans would mount more pressure on them.
Both the fans and the team waited throughout the first half without getting the needed goal. The breakthrough came in the 66th minute when the club’s embattled captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored his first goal of the season.
🥁 Presenting your #ARSNOR man of the match…
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) September 12, 2021
🌟 @Auba 🌟 pic.twitter.com/QR1oBXWYcr
Aubameyang’s goal was all Arsenal needed to record their first victory in four Premier League games and also push themselves out of the relegation zone to the 16th spot.
⚽️ @Auba's winner
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) September 11, 2021
💫 @AaronRamsdale98's body feint
⚡️ Tomiyasu's bright debut
Check out the highlights from #ARSNOR 👇 pic.twitter.com/xWCBpvsU6P
After the game in which Arsenal recorded 30 shots, 7 on target, Mikel Arteta said he went into the game against Norwich City with “real emotion” inside, adding how proud he was for the win.
“For me, it’s the been the best week or 10 days of my career in this industry,” Arteta told Sky Sports.
“I am not saying they were the easiest, but I got to the game today with a real emotion inside because you learn a lot in difficult moments, who you are with. In difficult moments when you see the people and the level of organization and the fans we have.
“From the top of the club to everybody that works with us as a team, I cannot be any prouder for what we’ve done.
“And then you have to win football matches and get results. That’s unquestionable but that’s very meaningful.
“And I also have to say I saw the crowd and I didn’t know what to expect today because I didn’t know what the feeling was.
“They were ready to suffer from the team today and they were only focused on trying to give things to the team, so I am extremely grateful to them as well.”
On the 1-0 win, Mikel Arteta added: “It was a deserved win as well because we had chances to finish the game much earlier than we did.
“It was a really tricky game to play because you were playing not only the game but the emotions too and knowing what happened in the last three weeks and the games that we’ve lost.
“We knew that today was a must-win game. We came here and you saw the attitude of every player and I’m happy to give something to the fans as well.
“We started really crisp, really sharp, really attacking and with a high press, and after 20 to 25 minutes our rhythm broke and we started to give the ball away. We wanted to attack in one or two passes, and we were very split with big distances. We looked a little bit shaky in some moments.
“In the second half, straight away, we took control of the game and we looked like the team that was going to win the game.”
