Mikel Arteta makes Goodison Park crowd and Everton ‘weakness’ claims after Arsenal loss

Mikel Arteta was pleased how Arsenal quelled the Goodison Park crowd he knows ‘really well’ in their victory over Everton.

Having spent six years as a player on Merseysider between 2005-2011, Arteta earned his first win at L4 as a manager as the Gunners earned a 1-0 triumph over the Blues on Sunday. Leandro Trossard bagged the only goal of the game, with Arsenal returning to north London with all three points for the first time in six years.

Sean Dyche’s hosts scarcely troubled Everton and gave the home supporters little to be roused about. And Arteta saluted how his Arsenal side kept the home faithful quiet. Speaking at his post-match press conference, the Gunners head coach said: “I know this crowd really well and you could feel it. There were moments that they lift and the momentum shifts and you have to try to stay very far away from that game - because when they get that in that rollercoaster, they are a really good team and it's really difficult to get out of that. I think we did that really well.”

Arsenal’s goal arrived in the 69th minute when they worked a short-corner routine which was finished off by Trossard’s precise finish. Arteta added: “Really happy. Extremely happy with the performance and the way we played. After six years of not doing that that was the challenge for us and the opportunity as well. We looked at everything we needed to do and I saw that on the pitch. We created a lot of changes, I think we dominated the game, we gave nothing away. To do that here big compliment to the players because it’s not easy to do that.

“We work on everything, as every manager does, to expose the weakness of the opponents and to hide yours. That’s the outcome of what we tried to do. Then the results take care of themselves. We found openings in many other ways but we weren’t neat enough to take advantage in the last pass, the last action. Credit to them because they defend the box really well as well. Probably the game would have been really different if Martinelli’s goal had been allowed. It wasn’t. I feel super happy today.”