Mikel Arteta admitted he had never seen anything like our first-half against West Ham before, in which we ripped into our opponents with four goals in the opening 36 minutes.
We went on to win 5-2 – the second time in less than a week that we had scored five on the road, following up from our win against Sporting.
After the game our manager praised the attacking output of the side.
“I think the first 30 minutes was spectacular,” he said. “The quality, the understanding, the purpose and how the boys played and competed, it was second to none. You score three great goals, take control of the game, score the fourth one and then, we could probably not maintain that level.
“We conceded a very sloppy goal, take the kick-off, backwards, concede the free-kick, 4-2 and suddenly it’s like, game on. “But after that the fifth goal gives us a lot of composure and control in the second half, we could play a very different game that was much suited for us than the game they wanted to play.”
There were parallels with that win against Sporting on Tuesday, when the hosts briefly threatened a comeback after we took a big lead. But once again we held firm to see out the points.
“Yes, because of the timing of the goals,” Arteta added. “Conceding one wasn’t a problem but conceding the second one straight away, then the margins become less. You just give them hope, that’s something we have to improve, we have to learn from it, once your opponent is there on the ropes, you have to make sure that they stay there and they have no hope.”
The boss was also keen to stress the impact of his substitutes, and those that came into the starting XI. With Thomas Partey ruled out of action yesterday, Jorginho came in for just his fourth start in the league this season. Leandro Trossard also came in to the starting XI, and was one of five different scorers, for the second match running.
“Big credit to the boys you know,” Arteta said. “The team is flowing, the energy is there, a lot of quality, you have to play the game in different ways today, we’ve done it.
“We had to make changes and everybody comes in, we lost big players again yesterday, nobody is really affected. Jorginho comes in, he was outstanding I think, Jakub has to come in at half time, the same, Alex, very good.
“Now we’ve got some momentum, the energy is high, enjoy tonight, watch a beautiful game of football tomorrow, get ready to go again on Wednesday.”
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