Mikel Arteta has tried to pour cold water on Arsenal’s talk of the Premier League title this season following his side’s victory over Tottenham.
The Gunners maintained their flying form as they swarmed their poor rivals and beat the winners 3-1 in a thrilling North London derby at the Emirates Stadium.
The victory means Arsenal will retain their place at the top of the table for another week, even though second-placed Man City beat Manchester United in the Manchester derby on Sunday.
It was a huge game for Arteta’s young side, and one that shows they can handle the pressure of playing against the league’s top clubs and their biggest rivals.
That has been the constant question hanging over this Gunners side, especially after their 3-1 loss to United in their first real test of the campaign a few weeks ago.
But they followed that up by bouncing back in a 3-0 win over Brentford and now what was one of the most one-sided derbies in North London in recent times.
Arteta was delighted with his side’s performance and mental resilience, particularly after Harry Kane’s penalty kick made it 1-1, only for goals from Gabriel Jesus and Granit Xhaka to seal a big win after the match. marvelous overture by Thomas Partey.
But he didn’t go so far as to back his side for a title tilt, insisting they still have a lot to improve on before that statement arrives.
Asked how close Arsenal are to claiming the title again, Arteta told talkSPORT: “I don’t know and I can’t answer that question.
“We are now at the top of the table and we are really happy to be here, we want to continue to be here and just focus.
“They’re a really hungry and humble team and we know we still have so much to improve on to reach a level required to actually do something very impressive in this league.”
Jesus was named talkSPORT’s Man of the Match after another scintillating individual display from the Brazilian, which gave his national team manager food for thought after being left out of their recent squad.
And while Arteta hailed the impact of the summer signing, he made it clear that it was the team’s all-around performance that won the game against Spurs.
“I wouldn’t like to highlight any individual,” said the Spaniard.
“Obviously Gabi [Jesus] brought something different to the club, to the team, certain qualities and experiences that he had that are so helpful and you can see that, but for me the most powerful thing is how we connect each other.
“I’m very happy, especially with how and how we immediately connected to the game, with our audience and the energy we generated, it was phenomenal.
“We demanded to play a certain way, and that’s obviously different from what they [Tottenham]but I think there were two really good teams trying to do their own thing, and we’re really happy to have won the game.
talkSPORT also caught up with goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale after full-time, and he said Saturday’s triumph overtook last season’s home win over Spurs, which was also a 3-1 win thanks to goals. ‘Emile Smith Rowe, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Bukayo Saka.
“It’s special,” said the Gunners No.1. “It was definitely the best home game of last year.
“It’s that winning mentality, that attitude of never saying that we have in the team at the minute, that fire that burns inside that no matter if they score, we know we have the quality to hurt them.
“The signings we brought in are winners, even William Saliba arriving, a French international, U21 player of the year, so we have him in the squad.”
Like his boss, Ramsdale also said Arsenal were not thinking about the title and said their main objective was to avoid more top-four heartbreak after being bumped into the post by Spurs at the end of last season .
Asked if a top-four place was the minimum expectation for this Arsenal side this term, Ramsdale replied: “Yes it has to be.
“It was the minimum for us at the start of the season, it’s the same now and it will be the same after 20 and 30 games.
“What happened to us at the end of last season, we don’t want to go through that again.”