Every word Mikel Arteta said on Arsenal win over Wolves, Gyokeres, fine margins and being top

Mikel Arteta spoke to the media following Arsenal’s victory over Everton at the Hill Dickinson stadium.

Mikel Arteta faced the press after his Arsenal side narrowly beat Everton away from home for just the second time in eight visits. The Gunners boss was, of course, pleased to come away with all three points, which, importantly, takes them back above Manchester City.

Arteta discussed Viktor Gyokeres being handed the ball to take the penalty from Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka too. The margin needed not be that small, and that was also a clear frustration for the Gunners coach.

He discussed the upturn in the second half of Martin Odegaard as well as the performances of Declan Rice in the middle. Being top at Christmas, he discussed what might make things different this time around.

Here is every word from the Arsenal manager:

After the Wolves game, you weren't happy with the performance. A week later, how are you happy with the response the players have given you tonight?

Well, I'm very happy with the result. We did part of the performance against a team that is very difficult to beat, really well organised. They can really stress you in the way they play.

The game can become chaotic. We didn't allow that to happen, except for one sequence of two corners and one throw after we kicked the ball out of play. In the second half, we had three massive chances to put in the second goal or the third one.

We didn't do it. You can suffer at the end. We didn't because we haven't conceded anything, but overall the margins could have been bigger.

And just on Viktor, naturally, we've been talking about how much he's been spoken about in recent weeks, so for him to get the crucial goal must lift the whole weight off his shoulders.

Yes, I'm very happy for him. They took ownership on the pitch between Martin, Bukayo and to decide who was the taker, and they made a great decision because Viktor put the ball in the back of the net.

Just to be honest, I know we ask about him every week, but he's had another impressive performance.

His leadership on the pitch. The amount he regained as well. He allowed us to run and he's been incredibly consistent this year again. He's a massive player for us.

Do you feel at all that your team is a little bit lucky not to concede a penalty with Saliba and the barriers?

I know they checked it. I haven't seen the image. I haven't seen even our penalty as well, so I don't know.

They made a decision. We are all involved in a lot of situations in the book, so I don't want to really comment too much on that.

What were your thoughts on Martin Odegaard obviously gifting the penalty to Gyokeres?

Great decision.

It kind of had similarities to September 2023 when he gave Havertz the ball at Bournemouth. Does that kind of show the selflessness of the captain in going out of his way to help a player under scrutiny?

Yes, I agree with that and as well the confidence on the player because obviously he practices every day and he's an unbelievable athlete. He put the ball in the back of the net, so I love when players take ownership and decide by themselves what is the best decision. That's something really positive.

What were your thoughts on Martin's performance, particularly in the second half? He seems to grow into the game a bit more with his passing.

Yes, he was much more vertical as well. We find some spaces; we find him to have more vertical attacks as well. The moment they started to be more aggressive in their press, and in those moments, we should have decided the game a bit earlier.

This is the third time in four years you're going to be top at Christmas. What gives you confidence and belief that this time will be different than in previous years?

What gives me belief and confidence is the level of performance and the consistency of that. That's very, very difficult to do in this league. That means that the team is constantly there.

Enjoy the process of winning. You're going to have to go to difficult places, you're going to have difficult moments. We have dealt with a lot of things already, and we are there.

What we want to do is work for the next game, try to improve and make sure that everybody is with that spirit and energy and enjoying that.

You mentioned a couple of times there that the margins could have been bigger. Is that something you felt was a theme throughout these recent games? Because it seems that games have been a bit tighter than maybe they needed to be.

Yes, but you hit the post twice with players that normally are in those positions are going to put the ball in the net. It's what it is. We have to try, we have to continue.

The more we insist, the more will happen and the margins will be bigger. That's what we have to try to do.

A few times when you've got to this period of the season, I remember a couple of seasons ago, you mentioned ball speed being really important. I was just wondering how you felt that's been in these games, especially in the first half here before the penalty. How did you feel your team were moving the ball?

At the end, you have to dominate the tempo of the game. In order to do that, you have to understand what the game requires, when you have to play really fast, and when you have to slow the game down. If you provoke the things that you want to provoke with the ball, it's right.

But sometimes when you have to be more incisive, more aggressive, you have to speed up the game. Today we had a moment where we read that really well and all the time that we were a bit hesitant to make the right decision. That's something that we can improve.

What was the difference, do you think, in the approach in terms of seeing out the lead this week, and what was fairly comfortable compared to last weekend against Wolves?

Well, against Wolves we generated many more entrances in the box and when we reviewed the match, the amount of situations that we had, overloads in the box and the ball hasn't arrived in the right spot. It was unbelievable and without really conceding nothing until the last cross. Again, the margin should have been bigger but that's what we have to learn while we are winning.

On the new stadium

Before I leave guys, I want to congratulate everybody at this football club at Everton. Everybody has contributed building this amazing stadium because it was incredible to witness. Not only the way they've done it, the atmosphere that they've created.

So as an ex-player and someone that supports this club, congratulations to all of them.