Mikel Arteta was keen to stress how ‘early’ it was in the season and brushed off claims that Arsenal had taken a giant step towards the title following his side’s 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace.
Eberechi Eze came back to haunt his former team with the only goal of the game at the Emirates, which once again came from a trademark Arsenal set-piece.
Gabriel Magalhaes and Bukayo Saka both came close to doubling the hosts’ advantage in the second period, but Eze’s stunning 39th-minute strike ultimately proved the difference.
Possible injuries to William Saliba, Declan Rice, Riccardo Calafiori and Gabriel Martinelli put a slight dampener on an otherwise productive weekend for the Gunners, in which Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea all suffered defeats.
The result means the north Londoners now hold a four-point lead at the top of the Premier League table after nine matches. Arteta’s men will look to tighten their grip on top spot when they return to action away to struggling Burnley in a week’s time.
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‘I just told the boys that they will probably value this victory more than any other victory this season because we knew the difficulty of it,’ Arteta said of Arsenal’s latest win.
‘We come after playing every three days. You have a big opportunity as well, with the things that happened during this weekend.
‘I knew we were playing against a team that has been one of the best recently in terms of organisation, how difficult they make it, how frustrated they can make you.
‘The moment you lose that concentration, they will punish you for sure.
‘We’ve managed to be more stable, playing the game we have to play. We found a way to score in the first half and in the second half we attacked better and we were more fluent.
‘But at 1-0, we knew we had to suffer. To keep a clean sheet again was very important.’
According to Arteta, the fact City, Liverpool and Chelsea all dropped points just underlines the strength of the English top flight this season.
‘It shows how hard this league is,’ the Spaniard said when asked about Arsenal’s rivals losing.
‘The players aren’t allowed their phones so I hope not [that they didn’t know].’
Despite Arsenal’s encouraging start to the campaign, Arteta believes there is still lots of room for improvement over the coming weeks and months.
‘We are where we are,’ he explained.
‘It’s a credit to us because we have been very consistent knowing the difficulty of every match as well.
‘It is early. It doesn’t mean anything other than let’s keep doing a lot of things that we’re doing well but there are things to improve.’
Arteta was unable to provide any clarity on the nature or severity of Saliba’s injury, which saw the Frenchman replaced by Cristhian Mosquera at the midway point.
‘The first one [injury] was Willy, he had to be out after the first half,’ Arteta responded when asked for an update on Saliba’s fitness at his post-match press conference.
‘I don’t know [the exact nature of the injury], not because I don’t want to tell you! But because I don’t really know.
‘On Willy, there are two things related to his substitution.’
Rice and Calafiori were also replaced in the closing stages, both appearing in some discomfort as they left the field in north London.
‘Declan was also struggling from the first half with a knock that he took,’ Arteta explained.
‘And Ricci [Calafiori] as well, so let’s see how they recover.’
On Rice’s issue, Arteta added: ‘With Declan I don’t really know because it was knock, whether it was a calf or an achilles.’
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