Arteta on keeping up the momentum

We returned from the international break in style with two wins from two and Mikel Arteta has urged us to build on that momentum going into a busy winter schedule, starting with West Ham United tomorrow.

After drawing away to Chelsea before the last international break, we returned with two high-scoring wins against Nottingham Forest and in Sporting CP this week.

Our attention now switches to West Ham United at the London Stadium and the boss is eager to keep the confidence high as we head into our third London derby of the campaign.

“Obviously winning lifts the energy and the confidence up,” Mikel said in his pre-match press conference.

“They were two big wins for us and now it’s about consistency, getting that momentum we are in and taking it even further against a really good opponent tomorrow and try to replicate the performance to win the game.”

The games are coming thick and fast in the next six weeks, with our next fixture outside of London not coming until January 4, 2025, against Brighton.

The boss believes the momentum is building but with games taking place almost every three days, the focus is on keeping standards high. 

He said: “It doesn’t matter what you did yesterday, it’s about the next days, the next performance.

“Are you able to sustain high level performance throughout the game as well because of how competitive every opponent is right now, and that’s what we will try to do tomorrow.” 

Despite a tricky period before the international break, Mikel hailed our character and how we’ve been able to turn that into victories since the return of domestic football.

“I don’t link character to winning,” he said. “This team showed unbelievable character against Inter and we lost, showed unbelievable character against Chelsea, we were the better team, we didn’t manage to win.

“Same players, same intentions, being more efficient and winning matches, that’s the difference.”