Mikel Arteta praised his players for “smelling blood” on a “beautiful evening” at the Emirates Stadium as Arsenal swatted aside their title rivals Aston Villa to record a fourth successive Premier League win and move five points clear of Manchester City, at least till Thursday.
Arsenal recovered from the loss of Declan Rice with a knee injury and a poor first-half performance to run out comfortable winners, inspired by two goals at the start of the second half, from Gabriel Magalhães and Martín Zubimendi.
“It is a beautiful evening,” Arteta said. “That was a very tough match, as we knew it would be, because they are a top opponent to play against. To continue to win you have to win in different contexts. Today maybe the margin wasn’t that big, but we made it big because we were so efficient and ruthless in front of goal.
“We smelt blood, but had to really grab it. The way we started the second half was amazing, we really turned things up and were efficient in everything that we did.
“We have created a lot of chances in the last few weeks, but we saw the difference today. We needed scrappy goals to win other games but today the quality of our finishing was top and made the difference.”
Unai Emery refused to criticise his players after Villa failed to record a club record 12th successive win, and highlighted the half-time loss of Amadou Onana to a hamstring injury as the turning point following a promising opening 45 minutes.
“We did a very good first half, but the first goal changed everything and after it they pushed it,” he said. “And we had as well the injury of Amadou Onana and we lost everything in the middle. They had the power and they showed it, so we finished losing.”
Emery failed to shake Arteta’s hand following the final whistle as he was quick to disappear down the tunnel while Arsenal were celebrating a significant victory, and joked that it was “too cold” for him to wait any longer for his fellow Basque.
Arteta had no complaints, however, and is more concerned with assessing Rice’s knee problem before Saturday’s trip to Bournemouth. “The swelling has to come right down for him to have the chance to function,” he said.
