Arsenal benefits from clean sheets and bench strength, according to Arteta
Arsenal is ready for another good run in the Champions League, according to coach Mikel Arteta, whose team beat Olympiacos on Wednesday. This is because the club has added players to its bench and tends to keep clean sheets.
The north London club took the lead early on thanks to a goal from Brazilian Gabriel Martinelli after a rebound in the 12th minute. They had a lot of chances to score before substitute Bukayo Saka’s late goal sealed the 2-0 win.
“We had another 2-3 big chances and if you don’t put them away in this competition you have to be careful,” Arteta said.
Olympiacos had a great record against Arsenal, having won all three of their visits to the Emirates Stadium. The Greek team came back from an early loss to make things tough for the hosts at times.
Arteta said that his team would have scored more goals if Olympiacos goalkeeper Kostas Tzolakis hadn’t made some great stops. He also mentioned that his team has kept 11 clean sheets in their last 14 Champions League games.
Since he took over as manager in 2019, Arteta has added more players to his team than at any other time. He spent over 250 million pounds ($337 million) on new players over the summer.
He made five substitutions and six changes to the team that beat Newcastle United 2-1 in the Premier League on Sunday, coming from behind to win in the last few minutes.
“We had the feeling as well that physically we were dropping because we played a really intense match in Newcastle a few days ago,” Arteta shared. “The ones that came in again, they lifted the level, they helped us to win the game.”
On Wednesday, Gabriel, a key defender, was taken off. Arteta said it was just for safety reasons, and the Brazilian should be fine for Saturday’s Premier League game against West Ham United.
He also said nice things about new striker Viktor Gyokeres’ work ethic, even though the Swedish player hasn’t scored in a few games.
“We want him to be scoring goals, but if he doesn’t do that, at least to do everything else he is doing for the team, because he’s helping the team a lot,” he said.
Aside from the three points, the best thing for Arsenal was seeing leader Martin Odegaard back in charge after being sidelined with injuries all season.
Arette said, “I think he played a really, really good game.” “Every level defensively and attacking, and he looked really focussed.”
