Mikel - ‘Today was a special day’

Mikel Arteta couldn’t have asked for much more from his 200th game in charge of the club.

The boss brought up his milestone in fine fashion, earning a three points, a clean sheet and going to the top of the Premier League table.

“Today was a special day for me, for the staff, 200 games for this incredible club,” he said. “I'm really going to remember this day for a lot of reasons but especially for the chemistry that the team shows between them. You know how sensitive we are with the emotional state of each of them. The relationship that we have with our supporters and obviously the fact that we won the game and we are top of the league.

“I am so happy, I’m going to have a beautiful dinner with my family and tomorrow start to think about the next Champions League game.”

But his team had to work hard for the three points at the Gtech Community Stadium, finally getting the breakthrough late on.

“We knew that was going to be the case,” he said. “I'm so happy how much the team wants it, how prepared they were. We knew we were coming to a really tough place today after having the opportunity to go top. And the team showed an incredible mentality, the way they competed, the way they play, and we fully deserved to win the game.”