We started the new year how we ended the last one – with a hard-fought three points in the Premier League.
After falling behind in the first-half following a mistake from Gabriel, we drew level when the big defender rammed home his shot shortly afterwards.
Then Declan Rice took over in the second-half, scoring two well-worked goals to give us the lead, and take us six points clear at the top of the table.
After the game Mikel Arteta found plenty of positives from our seventh consecutive win.
“I’m very happy,” the boss said. “It’s a very difficult place to come and get the three points. We made it even harder in the manner that we conceded the first goal. I loved the personality, the composure, the calmness of the team and especially Gabi [Magalhaes] because after making that mistake, to react in the manner that he did, it's very difficult to see at the elite level.
“In the second half we started so well again, scored two goals and earned the right to win the game.”
The two second-half goals were both the result of some incisive passing in the building up, and the boss believes those moments made all the difference in the game.
“You have to show quality,” he said. “It's a moment that the game becomes very chaotic here, it's a game that they propose, they want to attract you and play direct and go in the second ball so they can really stretch the pitch for you and make it really uncomfortable.
“So you need to take the moments that you have where you are more settled and to be able to play with that quality.”
It means we have 15 wins from our first 20 league games, only twice recording more at this stage of the season in our history, but Mikel is only looking forward.
“We have to keep going, we have a lot of records now in our history but I think we want to translate that to what's going to happen in May and that's a long way away so we need to stay focused on what we're doing, learn from every game, keep improving as a team and make sure that everybody is very connected to give the team what it needs."
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Rice: “It’s a massive result”](https://www.arsenal.com/news/rice-its-massive-result?utm_source=arsenaldotcom&utm_medium=embedded-article&utm_campaign=news)
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