After a record-breaking night in the Champions League, Mikel Arteta was full of praise for the way his team ‘stepped up’ to the challenge.
We racked up seven goals against PSV, smashing our record for biggest away win in the competition, and becoming the first side ever to net more than six in a Champions League away match in the knock-out stages.
“It was a beautiful night,” the manager said. “The players really made us enjoy the night. It was a big game obviously, in the Champions League, in the knockout stage and to play with flow, to score the goals we did and in the manner that we won the game – very, very impressive.”
It was our fifth consecutive win in European competition but came on the back of two scoreless outings in the Premier League, and the boss said he was delighted with how we roared back to form.
“We talked about stepping up to the occasion and when it comes to this moment you have to elevate your level,” he said. “You really have to play with a lot of initiative and when we talk about initiative, getting players in the positions that players are in, a full-back putting an assist for Myles [Lewis-Skelly], Jurrien [Timber] scoring a goal, Calafiori making a run and scoring with the right foot, that’s the team that we want to see and they’re a phenomenal team.
“It’s really difficult because PSV are a really good team, the way they beat Juventus was really impressive. So how we’ve done it and when we’ve done it, I think we have to give the boys a lot of credit.”
On a night when we had six different goalscorers, the manager also issued a reminder that we are only at half-time in the tie.
“I’m especially happy for them because of recent results, obviously it’s difficult when you generate the amount of situations that we generate in the last two games and haven’t managed to score. This is the beauty of football, don’t talk too much, keep working, put your head down and things will happen.
“It’s Champions League,” he added, “and in a week’s time we’re going to have to play them again and we’re going to have to prove again the team we are in and how willing we are to win the game.”
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