Mikel: “The team is in a good position” | Interview | News

Mikel Arteta is happy with the team’s situation after Friday’s 1-0 home win against Ipswich Town.

With the win over Tractor Boys, our manager is unbeaten in 17 games at the Emirates Stadium and feels things could have been even better.

“Yes, this is a big platform to move on from,” he said. “In my opinion we lost some points that we deserved. Overall, I think the team is in a good position after everything we’ve been through in the first six months of the season.

“I’m really happy, really happy to have won the game, with a lot of the team’s performance (especially) with the clean sheet. It’s so hard to win in this festive period, there are a lot of games, a lot of distractions and the team performed and deserved to win the game again.

“The spaces are so tight when you look at the stats and what we did in the first half. The team tries everything they can and we don’t allow anything, no shots, nothing at all, which is remarkable. “There are always things to improve, things to do better, but overall the team was very solid.

“At the level in this league you know what’s coming. They start throwing everyone forward, very direct, you concede one or two set pieces and defend deep.

“We did it without conceding a shot again, so it’s more the suffering and the fact of wanting to finish the game than what they actually created.”

A special mention went to Myles Lewis-Skelly, the young player who Declan Rice described as “built in a laboratory” for his fantastic performance against Ipswich.

“He was exceptional,” Mikel added. “I think it’s the first time he’s played the full game – really consistent, in attack and defense, so focused and with a lot of initiative, and like you said, he shows a great personality, it’s a big one Step for him to play at the level he plays at. He was really good today.”

Next we travel to Brentford for our first game of 2025. Kick-off is on Wednesday at 5.30pm at the Gtech Community Stadium.

“It will be very difficult and if you look at the numbers and the performance of the team this season, especially at home, it is remarkable,” said Mikel. “Let’s analyze the game, train well and then we’ll be ready.”