Arteta on "phenomenal" win over Brighton

Mikel Arteta described our 2-0 win against Brighton & Hove Albion as “phenomenal” as we put the Seagulls to the sword at Emirates Stadium.

Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz got on the scoresheet in the second half to ensure our display got the points it deserved, as we dictated the game from start to finish and limited our opponents to few moments of real danger.

And Mikel, who admitted he was a little worried when we hadn’t scored in the first half, was thrilled to get the win over a side who had triumphed on their last three visits to our corner of north London, and extend our unbeaten run at home to 13 matches.

“I think it was a phenomenal performance with a great feeling as well because of what happened last season, and the demands that Brighton put on you,” he said. “I think the team was outstanding today from the start to the end, and thankfully we deserved to win the game, and we won it.

“I was concerned because I think we had 15 shots in the first half and we had so many open situations to put the ball in the back of the net, but we didn’t, and this is the Premier League. We kept going in the second half, and in the end we found two very different goals, a great way to score them and I’m really happy today.

“I think the team showed a lot of determination, against a team that wants to take the ball off you and press you really high. They go man-to-man a lot up the field, you have to be very, very clever to understand what you have to do in every moment, because you are always on that edge, that if you make a wrong step, they’re going to punish you.”

Our defence held firm though and kept their first clean sheet in three league games, and that aspect of the victory was one that the boss was particularly impressed by, and meant that we sent our supporters home happy in our final Emirates Stadium match before Christmas.

On how thrilled he was about not conceding, Mikel added: “Especially against a team that has scored in the last 32 games I think in the Premier League. Huge credit, we dominated especially by having the ball really far from our goal and generating a lot of chances.

“The atmosphere was incredible again, how the crowd pushed [us], how the crowd played every single ball with us, it’s just beautiful to be out there and experience that.”