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Arteta - I saw an opportunity for the third goal

Five years after hanging up his boots, Mikel Arteta arguably claimed another Arsenal assist as we beat Watford on Sunday.

With his side 2-1 up, the ball went out of play and the boss instantly grabbed it and handed it to Bukayo Saka for a quick throw, and the result was a Gabriel Martinelli goal.

"I don't know, I saw an opportunity and was there because I wasn't very happy with what I was seeing and I just wanted to take an advantage - and the rest of the boys did what they did!" Arteta told Arsenal Media.

"Yes [it's] a big win, it's very tough to win games in a row in the Premier League and we knew that today, against a team that has a new manager and they are fighting for their lives, that it would be tough and it appeared to be from the first seconds of the match when we conceded a goal that was disallowed.

"A lot of positive things in our general play, the chances we created, we scored some great goals, but we didn't have total control of the game and I'm not happy with that.

"Once we scored the third one I think we should have played a completely different game. We didn't manage to take control of the game to play the right passes in the right areas, we were rushed, we were broken [against], we were in transition moments where we didn't finish the actions, we had transition moments against us and that creates physically a very demanding game, which you could see in some players. As well, the uncertainty that if they scored a goal then the game was on.

Attacking, we have been much more consistent, much more creative, our cohesion, our link, our understanding of what to do in each moment is getting even better and today we scored three good goals."

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