Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has opened up about his side beat Nottingham Forest 2-1 in their first match of the 2023-24 Premier League season on Saturday.
The Gunners were involved in a tense finish with Forrest as the latter scored a late goal to come back in the game. Arsenal had taken a 2-0 lead in the first half and were comfortable for majority of the game.
“Welcome to the Premier League! I think that’s the highlight, we were super dominant, we deserved to win the game, there’s no question that we deserved to win the game,” Arteta said in a press conference after the match.
“But when you are 2-0 up and you have some chances to kill the game we didn’t and then we gave a very sloppy one away after being there and having the corner and having a chance on the corner. Straight away from two passes you concede a goal, when that happens in the league it’s game on, every team has the resources, the quality to create issues, and it was more about the feeling of what happened, because the reality is we didn’t concede anything. Running the clock down, in this league, that’s a very dangerous thing to do but overall I'm very happy,” he added.
The Arsenal boss also spoke about whether his tactics are designed to identify solutions to problems from the previous season.
“That’s my job, to create bigger problems for the opponents and the ones that they are creating us, and to play the best possible way to earn right the to win the game and have the highest probability to win the game. In order to do that we have to pick the right players every week, not to start only but as well to finish and the players that come in the final part of the game, they really help us as well to earn the right to win,” he said.
Arteta also stressed the importance of moving the ball quicker in order to maintain rhythm during the match.
“Especially in the second half, especially when we are 2-0 up and the rhythm needs to be maintained. We spoke that we wanted a very high rhythm game today, because we knew the pitch was going to get dry and it was really hot, and it’s going to be slower. Everything that is going to be in a low block, with the Christmas tree [formation] and slow [play], benefits the opponent. We need to stay away from those games,” he concluded.