Mikel Arteta was visibly delighted and was seemingly pleased with his side’s performance after their 5-0 thrashing of {statorium_team tid=8 sid=252 text="Chelsea"} on Tuesday night.
After taking an early lead, the Gunners held on to their lead going into half-time, before a dominant and ruthless performance that saw the hosts score four in the second, with braces from {statorium_player pid=604 sid=252 text="Ben White"} and {statorium_player pid=1695 sid=252 text="Kai Havertz"} respectively.
The result means {statorium_team tid=9 sid=252 text="Arsenal"} are still firmly in the title race, while also remaining undefeated against the ‘big six’ so far this season.
Ahead of another tough game in the form of the north London derby on Sunday, Arteta was pleased to see his side show ruthlessness against Chelsea.
Arteta hails magical night against Chelsea
“With the result, with the goals, with the clean sheet and then overall with the night that we lived together with our supporters, it was magical from the beginning,” Arteta said post-match.
“We started really good, very determined and created many, many chances. Then we became a bit sloppy and we lost one or two balls in dangerous areas and they can punish you and we should have got punished and in the second half we reacted.”
“We were much more disciplined, the same threat going forward, same aggression without the ball and to score five goals and keep a clean sheet against this team, credit to the boys.”
{statorium_player pid=4458 sid=252 text="Tomiyasu"} and {statorium_player pid=1124 sid=252 text="Partey"} were back in the starting lineup and the latter particularly impressed, playing a dominant 70 minutes in the middle of the park.
Partey was equally pleased with Arsenal’s performance and is eager to contribute strongly on a personal level between now and the end of the season.
He said: “I’m happy to be back in the team and also to get a win in the derby,” he said. “It’s a really important game, so I’m very happy. Everything depends on us. We have to continue winning our games, we have a few more games left and we have to win them all.”
“It was a very good game, we went all out from the beginning because we knew how important this game was. If we don’t approach it right we are not able to win, but we did everything right and I’m really proud of the squad.”
Partey also heaped praise on teammate Kai Havertz, who scored a brace against his former side to continue his excellent impressive form.
“He’s a great player, he’s working a lot and you can see the work he’s doing. He deserves everything that comes along. I hope he can continue like that and finish the season strongly.”