Mikel Arteta has reacted after winning the Premier League manager of the month award for August following five successive wins in all five Premier League matches in the month. Arsenal’s resurgent team thrashed all their opponents, scoring 13 goals and conceding four before suffering a shock 3-1 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford.
Arsenal opened the 2022/23 Premier League campaign on a winning note against Patrick Vieira’s Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. A tough and hard-fighting Crystal Palace team was a no match to a resurgent Mikel Arteta’s team who had won all their preseason games, thrashing the likes of Chelsea and Sevilla convincingly.
Twenty minutes into the first half, the Gunners proved what they are made of by taking the lead courtesy of Gabriel Martinelli’s header. Zincheko’s headed pass from a corner kick saw Martinelli head home again from close range into the center of the goal. Late into the second half, an own goal by Marc Guehi made it 2-0 for the Gunners as they opened their Premier League campaign with a win.
Arsenal hosted Leicester City for their second match at the Emirates. It was a dramatic six-goals thriller with the Gunners emerging with another victory. New signing from Manchester City Gabriel Jesus opened the scoring in the 23rd minute and completed his brace in the 35th minute. An own goal from William Saliba on the 53rd pulled one back for the Foxes. Xhaka returned the game to its two-goal margin again in the 55th minute, making it 3-1. Leicester narrowed it again to one goal courtesy of James Maddison’s 74th-minute strike. Gabriel Martinelli scored his second goal in the game for Arsenal just a minute after Maddison’s strike wrapped the game off with a 4-2 win for Arsenal. Mikel Arteta grabbed a maximum of 6 points in his opening two Premier League matches.
Their third Premier League fixture was against Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium. Martin Odegaard bagged a brace in the 5th and 11th minutes in the first half. William Saliba completed the rout in the 54th minute to make it 3-0 for the Gunners.
Arteta took on Marco Silva’s Fulham, also nominated for the Premier League manager of the month of August award. It was a heated encounter. The first half ended in a barren draw. Alexander Mitrovic later gave Fulham the lead in the 56th minute. 8 minutes later, Martin Odegaard equalized. Gabriel Magalhaes scored late in the 85th minute to make it 2-1 for the Gunners, giving Arsenal four successive Premier League wins since the start of the season.
Mikel Arteta hosted Stephen Gerrard’s Aston Villa for his last match in the month of August. Gabriel Jesus scored his third goal for Arsenal, opening the scoring in the 30th minute. Aston Villa replied late in the 70th minute, courtesy of Douglas Diaz. Seven minutes later, Gabriel Martinelli scored again in the 77th minute to restore the lead. The win against Aston Villa kept Mikel Arteta’s 100 percent record throughout August. They won all their five matches, scoring 13 goals and conceding 4 goals.
Arsenal finished top of the Premier League table with a maximum of 15 points from five matches on the ninth of August. Unlike last season, when Arteta opened his Premier League campaign with thumping defeats against rivals, the Spaniard revived and strengthened the team with some hit signings that have changed the club’s fortunes so far.
After Arsene Wenger Arteta became the second manager to win five straight Premier League matches.
After votes from the public were combined with the panel, Mikel Arteta pulled the highest number of votes to beat Antonio Conte, Pep Guardiola, Marco Silva, and Graham Potter to emerge as the Premier League manager of the month for August.
Arteta speaks after the award, reacts to Man United’s loss and Brentford game
Erik Ten Hag’s Manchester United ended Arsenal’s unbeaten run after a 3-1 loss to the Red Devils at Old Trafford. Nevertheless, the massive overturn at the Emirates orchestrated by Mikel Arteta is evident. Arteta has transformed Arsenal from a team struggling for a top-four finish last season to a potential title contender.
Speaking after the award, Mikel Arteta looked back at the progress made by the Gunners after he had doubted his ability last season following the team’s poor start to the season.
He said: “I doubted myself, I questioned myself. This is part of a journey where – if you want to get better – you have to be self-critical.
“You have to have other people around you to tell you the truth and also have the humbleness to always be willing to get better, improve and explore other opinions and ways to do your job.
“But that tells you the expectations of the football club you are in, how much passion and love here is for this club and how quickly you can turn things around. You have to be prepared for that and you have to be analytical about why things happen.”
So what did he learn? “One of the big lessons was: stay calm in the difficult moments, understand why things happen, and move on.”
Arteta also reacted to Arsenal’s final loss to Manchester United, saying there is much to do to get better.
“After Manchester United, it was very simple,” he noted. “I watched the game back and said to the boys: ‘We have deserved to win the game with the way we played – but we gave them two opportunities to do something they are exceptionally good at. That was our fault – and then you have to move on.”
Turning to Sunday’s clash against Brentford, Arteta said his team has the strength and ability to pull great results against their opponents and will be heading into the Gtech Community Stadium to get the desired results.
“But they [Brentford] have shown in the last few months that they can perform and get big results against big team”, Arteta said.
“We are aware of that and we are not the only ones to have suffered there and on Sunday they will try to do exactly that again.
“We have to prepare for that.”
Arsenal opened their 2021/22 Premier League campaign against Brentford last season with a 2-0 defeat; a game Arteta admitted that he doubled his coaching abilities. This time, the Spaniard will be heading into the game with a better and revamped Arsenal squad, and the match is expected to be a cracker. Arsenal are still topping the Premier League table after 6 matches.
