Riccardo Calafiori admitted that the energy from the Emirates Stadium crowd helped push him throughout our 3-0 win against Nottingham Forest.
The Italian international had been missed for a month with a knee problem, but with Ben White also suffering a similar fate, Riccardo was needed to slot into a reshuffled defence which performed superbly to keep a clean sheet and prevent the visitors from even having a shot on target.
And he feels that the set-up at the club allows any player to seamlessly slot into our side and keep the performance levels high, which was evident as we returned to winning ways.
Reflecting on the defence changing so much this season, Riccardo said: “I think everything is made for us to play in the same way and everyone helped me a lot. The environment all around - you just play and it feels like I’ve never been out for some kind of points.
“I really enjoyed the game tonight, it was an amazing performance by everyone. The energy was unbelievable and the fans were as well. We really, and me especially, enjoyed the game.”
Riccardo played his first minutes since the 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth, missing the subsequent six games. His return was timely for Mikel Arteta as the games continue to come thick and fast, which the summer arrival hopes to have a big impact on now he’s got 67 minutes back under his belt.
“I don’t feel like I’m tired but for sure I’ve missed some games and felt it on the pitch,” he admitted post-match. “But then the stadium gave me the energy. The fans and also my teammates helped me a lot, so I felt really good at the end. I cannot wait to show them what I can do on the pitch again, and to show my teammates to help them.
“We need some really good wins now in a row. From now until March, there’ll be no rest, all the same weeks and we are ready to do this and to win most of the games for sure.”
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