Arteta on the win, the top four, patience and more

Mikel Arteta was a happy man after we sealed back-to-back Premier League wins by beating Brentford on Saturday.

Afterwards, the boss faced the media to discuss the performance, what it means in the race for a top-four place and more.

This is what he said:

on the importance of Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe...

Yes but thank you to the supporters again for the atmosphere they created. I understand they love that song and everybody loves that song because they are players that have been raised in our system and I'm really happy that we have players that come and take the responsibility and they manage to win games for us, which is really impressive at that age.

on if he was concerned before the breakthrough...

I think we played really well and we created so many chances and shots and attempts on goal in the first half but we didn't score the goal and in the Premier League you have to put those chances away if you want to win but I think we came back in the second half again and were really convincing and scored the goal and then it was a matter of scoring the second goal to kill the game. Once we had done that I think it was a shame that we conceded the goal but overall we should be happy with the result and the performance.

on if top four is in our hands now...

It's a long way to go but we are a little bit closer today because we have won our game and that's what we have to do. You can see with the results how tough it to win in this league. We have to go on Thursday again. We need to prepare really well because against Wolves it's going to be a difficult match and we'll need to perform well to win and play better and better and better. That's the aim.

on our form since Christmas...

We want to win every game as I said before and obviously, that's in the back of something and we want to try to get a big purpose to the season and that is certainly one of them but we know that we cannot look too far ahead. Things change very very quickly, it's really difficult to win matches in this league and we have to focus on tomorrow. Train tomorrow, train well, review the match and go again and prepare well against Wolves.

on if there was greater motivation going into this fixture after the result in the reverse fixture...

That hurts and that scar was there and I certainly felt it and tried to transmit it to the players that we should not forget how we felt after the game and we understood what happened and the results after that. We analysed it with the context that we were in and it was really difficult to prepare for that game. The players that we had on that pitch were not the players we had today but we learned a lot as a team.

on if our good form means it’s harder to pick a starting XI…

Yes, but for the performances on the pitch, but also for how they train and they’re really putting everything into training sessions. We play once a week, the last month we haven’t played much football and it’s tough to see players so willing to improve and do things in the right way and not be able to give them minutes on the weekend.

on the mood in the camp…

I think I said it when we played Norwich here in the first game that we won after three defeats, that it was an invaluable time for me to understand the people that we have at the club, the players and the staff around here, because the more difficult the situation was getting, the more united and close and convinced we were that together we could do it and that was a game-changer. It really united everybody and you probably learn more in difficult moments than in the good ones.

on what he learnt from the team during our tough start…

That nobody was blaming each other, that everybody wants to contribute, everybody wanted to be in the front lines, nobody wanted to hide and they want to be part of what we were doing and they showed that attitude and what they did was transmit that to the staff, to everybody at the club. And then you saw the reaction from the supporters and how close they got into the team because they believe in what we’re trying to do.

on how proud he is of the players…

Very happy, especially with the way we are playing and where we are going because that would lead to having good results and that journey is what we have to enjoy because the outcome we don’t know, it’s going to depend on many, many factors and we have to do what we can control and for sure every win celebrate it because in this league it’s tough.

on if we’re favourites for the top four…

The way I see it is now we have 15 games to go and we know, more or less, the amount of points that are going to be necessary in that fight and we’re still really, really far. So what we have to do is focus on the next match, don’t lose any height and this changes very quickly and will have a lot of turnarounds, I’m sure about that, you see it every week and we have to maintain everybody fit, that’s going to be really important, because we are a really short squad at the moment. Maintain everybody fit, maintain everybody with the right belief and the standards have to raise even more because we have to play better to win more matches.