Press conference

‘Good things happen to good people’

Our 4-2 victory over Chelsea on Wednesday evening wasn’t just a team performance, it was a complete squad effort as well, according to Mikel Arteta.

The manager was speaking to the media after the game, and was quick to give credit to the likes of Mohamed Elneny and Rob Holding, who came in to make their first starts since December and January respectively.

He said he wasn’t surprised that they were both able to drop into the team so seamlessly, despite a lack of recent game time.

“It’s very simple,” he said. “I’ve said it many times, it’s the way that they train. If you see the training session that we had on Sunday after the defeat, if you see Mo Elneny, Rob Holding, Nicolas Pepe, how they trained - I think it’s the reason why we won.

“I said to them before the game, to good people, good things happen guys, and we have some really really good people in that dressing room.

“That shows in difficult moments when they are not involved, not in the good moments. They have performed today because of how they look after themselves and how much they care about the team.”