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Arteta: ‘The atmosphere was mind-blowing!’

Mikel Arteta had plenty of reasons to be pleased with his team’s work against Manchester City, but the boss said he was particularly proud of the part our supporters played in the huge win.

This was our biggest ever win when playing against the reigning Premier League champions, and our home was absolutely rocking, especially during a memorable second half.

“It was a great day; the result: massive,” The boss said afterwards. “The performance, the manner that we’ve done it; really happy, really proud of the players. Really proud, again, of the atmosphere that we created in the stadium – it was mind-blowing. So, a good day to remember.

“To live moments like this with the stadium, that energy, with that cohesion between the team and our supporters, that’s something to build on.”

Our first goal came as a direct result of our aggressive pressing of the visiting defence, and set the tone for a fine all-round performance.

“We were very aggressive, we played with a lot of courage,” he added. “It has its risks as well because they are so talented, they understand the solutions to them. It’s risky but it paid off, we had moments as well where we had to suffer and dig deep, stay deep and be uncomfortable there, have a bit of luck in the right moments and I think they were superb. With the intentions that we played, playing forward, running, attacking spaces, taking risks with the ball and it really paid off.

“The timing [of our second goal] was really important because emotionally we got in the game straight away without giving them any hope or initiative and then we went one after the other as well, so really pleased.”

It was also the first time that we had two teenagers scoring for us in the same league game for nearly 40 years, with 18-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri both finding the net.

“Individually you need big performances throughout the team, we certainly had that, Myles had that. On top of that now, he adds a goal that is really relevant and important. The same with Ethan, he comes into a position which is quite new for him, and he scores an incredible goal.”