Arteta - The young lads are pushing and pushing

Mikel Arteta says Arsenal's youngsters are "pushing and pushing" to earn Premier League spots after another satisfying night in the Europa League.

A young line-up - featuring seven English players - raced into an early lead against Dundalk and were always in control before running out 4-2 winners.

 

Academy graduates Eddie Nketiah, Joe Willock and Folarin Balogun were all on target, and Arteta was impressed.

 

"These boys are pushing and pushing," he told Arsenal.com.

 

"You saw the performance of Eddie straight away in the first half, how committed he was, he was going for every ball and Flo when he came on, the same. Others, the same. We have some top talent here and we need to be a little bit patient with them but I think we're on the right track.

 

"I hope [it's one of many big nights for them]. It's always good to have games where we can give them an opportunity and they're surrounded by experienced players which is exactly what they need. We are really happy and I think it's a great experience for them.

 

"I asked the players to take the game seriously," Arteta went on. "I think they were very committed to trying to do the job. After going 2-0 up I think they got a little bit confused, but in general, we got the goals that we wanted to win the game which is always important.

 

"There are some players that for different reasons haven't played much football, some of them have been injured for a long time and they have managed to complete 90 minutes today, which is remarkable."

 

The manager was clearly referring to Calum Chambers, who made his first start for 347 days after suffering a long-term injury shortly after Arteta took charge last December.

 

"I am very pleased for him," said Arteta. "He's been playing with the Under-23s, he's been really good.

 

"He looks prepared and in a game like this, which is not easy, I think he had a really good performance. He scored a goal but it was disallowed, unfortunately."