Eddie Nketiah scored the winner within the dying moments of a pulsating match on the Emirates on Sunday as the house followers had been infused with contemporary perception that this may very well be their yr.
Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah celebrates with teammates after scoring their third objective throughout the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Manchester United on the Emirates Stadium in London on 22 January 2023. Picture: Glyn KIRK/AFP
LONDON – Premier League leaders Arsenal have had their title credentials questioned all season however their last-gasp win towards Manchester United has silenced lots of the remaining doubters.
Eddie Nketiah scored the winner within the dying moments of a pulsating match on the Emirates on Sunday as the house followers had been infused with contemporary perception that this may very well be their yr.
The recreation towards in-form United was seen as a important take a look at for the Gunners, particularly after Manchester City closed the hole on the high of the desk to simply two factors earlier within the day.
It was a problem they didn’t fluff, hitting again onerous after conceding the primary objective, scored by Marcus Rashford, and staying calm after Lisandro Martinez cancelled out Bukayo Saka’s strike within the second half.
Arsenal, who’ve made their best-ever begin to an English top-flight season, now have 50 factors after 19 video games – 5 away from defending champions City with a recreation in hand on the half-way level of the marketing campaign.
“I don’t think it gets much better than that,” stated a buoyant Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta.
“It was a beautiful moment, a really special one because we were pushing and pushing and pushing and the goal wasn’t coming and it came at the end… it was just electric. It was really emotional, really passionate and I lost it.”
Arteta stated he hopes the end result, which follows final week’s 2-0 win towards Tottenham within the north London derby, offers his crew the idea that Arsenal will be topped league champions for the primary time since 2004.
But he desires to maintain his crew’s toes on the bottom regardless of a outstanding season wherein they’ve misplaced simply as soon as within the league.
“We know our reality, we know how much we still have to improve,” stated the Spaniard, who was beforehand Pep Guardiola’s assistant at City.
WINNABLE MATCHES
Arsenal face the defending champions in the course of subsequent month however their upcoming fixtures all look winnable and it’s getting more and more troublesome to see the place they’ll slip up.
Leaving the match towards City apart, Arsenal’s subsequent opponents within the league are relegation-threatened Everton, Brentford, Aston Villa, Leicester, Bournemouth, Fulham, Crystal Palace and Leeds.
City, with title-winning pedigree, seem to have discovered their kind once more after a wobble and the perimeters on the backside of the desk will combat for his or her lives because the entice door looms.
But former Arsenal captain Arteta has reworked his facet from also-rans final season into title favourites, via luck and judgement.
Saka has gone from power to power whereas Nketiah has stepped up within the absence of latest signing Gabriel Jesus, injured whereas taking part in for Brazil on the World Cup.
The 23-year-old now has six targets in six video games in all competitions because the event in Qatar.
“What Eddie’s doing is incredible,” stated Arteta. “We cannot say we saw that. We were hoping that he could do that because of the way he is, because of his mentality, because of his qualities.”
When requested to sum up the primary half of the season, Arteta stated it was “extraordinary” however was once more cautious to keep away from the impression that his crew are the completed article.
“It doesn’t get much better than that, that’s the reality,” he stated. “I think we deserve the points that we have.
“We have performed nicely sufficient to win a lot of the matches however the actuality as nicely is that we nonetheless have quite a lot of issues that we will get significantly better at.”
So does he believe Arsenal are now favourites for the title, on course to win the Premier League for the first time since Arsene Wenger’s last triumph nearly two decades ago?
“I haven’t got an opinion,” he said. “It could be a notion. I do know my crew so nicely, I do know the place we’re, I do know why we’re right here and I do know the place we need to be.
“And we are still far from that and I know the level of the other teams, especially one that has won everything in the last five or six years and we are not there yet.”