Mikel Arteta picks out ‘unreal’ Arsenal summer signing after Chelsea win

Mikel Arteta was full of praise for summer signing Christos Tzolis after Arsenal’s 2-1 Premier League win over Chelsea on Sunday afternoon.

The Gunners kept up their 100 per cent start to the season thanks to the victory at the Emirates, although the afternoon started very badly for them.

Morgan Rogers opened the scoring just two minutes into the match, giving Chelsea a shock lead and becoming the first player to score against Arsenal this season.

The home team did not panic and were level on 25 minutes through Kai Havertz and were ahead just five minutes into the second half.

Martin Odegaard capped an excellent performance by scoring the winner, with Arsenal holding onto the narrow lead, partly thanks to a wonderful save from David Raya from an Estevao shot late on.

Tzolis started on the left wing and played the full 90 minutes, despite picking up a daft booking just before the hour mark for brandishing an imaginary yellow card.

The £34 million summer signing from Club Brugge was lively and hard-working throughout and provided the assist for Odegaard’s goal thanks to a dummy from Kai Havertz.

Arteta has been delighted with the impact the Greece international has made already this season, telling Sky Sports: ‘He was unreal again.

‘He has been showing that, the level of threat, his work-rate is just something else.

‘But his decision-making, the way he handles the timing and the advantage that generates in the next teammate is just phenomenal to watch.’

Raya’s flying late save from Chelsea’s Brazilian winger also saw him earn praise from his boss, although not just for that effort.

‘That save that he made against Estevao with that individual action,’ said Arteta. ‘His presence, you have him there, the way he comes out and collects every cross, he’s just so helpful.’

After a horror start to the game, the Arsenal boss was thrilled with how his team played for the other 88 minutes.

‘Very disappointed with the way we conceded the goal but it is also a credit to them and the finish that Morgan [Rogers] had,’ he told Sky Sports. ‘But it was a joy to watch our team play, compete, some huge individual performances as well and the atmosphere in the stadium was great to witness.

‘I’m interested in the way we reacted. We demand another layer of dynamism, threat and aggression and you have seen that today.’

It was captain Odegaard who was named Player of the Match by Gary Neville on Sky Sports and Arteta is very pleased to see the Norwegian put last season’s injury and form issues behind him.

‘I think he is enjoying his football,’ said the Spaniard. ‘His personal life is settled, he is available, he is training, he has his routine and if he is intelligent, he can take a lot of benefits from the players around him.

‘I think he was outstanding today.’