Mikel Arteta not getting carried away by table-topping Arsenal’s fast start

Posted Sunday, August 21, 2022 by PA

Mikel Arteta is not getting carried away despite his Arsenal side moving to the top of the Premier League following a comfortable win at Bournemouth.

The Gunners continued a perfect start to the campaign with a 3-0 victory on the south coast as an early Martin Odegaard double and a fine first Arsenal goal from William Saliba made it nine points from nine.

At this stage of last season, Arteta was facing calls to be axed as Arsenal boss as they sat bottom without a point or a goal.

Where''s your team? #PL pic.twitter.com/ZtVtiHvkqP
— Premier League (@premierleague) August 20, 2022

But despite the turnaround, the Spaniard is keen to keep his feet on the ground and not let the winning start lead to complacency.

“It’s just three games, it doesn’t mean anything,” he said of being top of the table.

“What it means is the team is playing really well, we won three games, we’re scoring goals, we’re keeping clean sheets, the team is playing and performing well, it’s competing really well.

“But it’s about Monday and getting better at other things that we have to do better and focus on Fulham.”

Mikel Arteta not getting carried away by table-topping Arsenal’s fast start — Gabriel Jesus has made a big impact at Arsenal since his move from Manchester City (Steven Paston/PA)

The summer signing of Gabriel Jesus has done much to herald such a stark turnaround in fortunes and, while he did not add to his goal tally on the south coast, the Brazil forward was again instrumental.

He was heavily involved in Odegaard’s opener, claiming the assist for the second and then seeing a goal of his own ruled out by VAR for a tight offside call.

Asked what Jesus, who ended the game with the captain’s armband, has brought to the club since his arrival from Manchester City Arteta added: “New confidence, spark, and that winning mentality that he has and the way he competes for every ball and the way he transmits his energy and his quality to the rest of the team.

“You can see that in the way he was involved today. He didn’t score, he got a goal disallowed unfortunately but he was in every action.”

In full voice for the full 90 📣
Thank you to every single one of our supporters today, we couldn''t do it without you ❤️#BOUARS pic.twitter.com/peR4IVKZz3
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) August 20, 2022

Arteta went on to joke that Saliba had been practising his goal in training all week and when pushed on another fine display from the France international replied: “The most important thing for a defender, defend, keep a clean sheet. The most important thing to do is to keep that clean sheet every game.”

For newly-promoted Bournemouth, their opening day win over Aston Villa seems a long time ago following heavy defeats to Manchester City and now Arsenal.

They face a tough trip to Liverpool next week after a Carabao Cup second-round tie at Norwich, and manager Scott Parker was unhappy with the showing of his players in the first half.

“The quality of what we played today was clear for all to see,” he said.

“I was really disappointed with the first half, we showed a real lack of humility about us.

“We were easily disappointed and why we could never get a foothold in the game and cause or pose Arsenal any problems our general demeanour was poor.

“There was a difference today, a big difference, we played Man City, arguably one of the best teams in Europe, Arsenal today, huge quality, so there is no shame in losing, but certainly today in the first half they weren’t a team I wanted to see in that sense.”