Arsenal

Mikel Arteta tells Sky Sports about his plans to improve his Arsenal squad and explains why the club must plot their own route back to the top; ...

The way Arsenal is viewed today is because of players and people like them." "The role of every player in the team has to be very clear. "We've been through a lot in the last two seasons and we are going to try to manage it in the best possible way. Then, every decision and every situation is going to allow you - or not allow you - to be as close as possible to that plan, which is our aim." "It's inevitable at some stages that one has to happen in favour of the other." "Our aim to improve in every single training session, to learn more, to be more efficient. "That's a big decision they have to make in recruitment, and then they are human beings as well. "But what the league was six years ago and what the league is today is completely different. "There are a lot of question marks there, but this is football." "You have to be ahead of the game," Mikel Arteta tells Sky Sports with a smile. "The context is completely different, so what was good three or five years ago is not good anymore, because the standards are so high. And then, the ones that you buy, [it's important] that they can have an impact straight away.

Goals from both centre-halves gave us a battling, huge victory in the chase for Champions League qualification. Rob Holding's first-ever Premier League goal ...

The striker shifted it past Kurt Zouma, onto his right foot, but placed his shot just wide from 20 yards. As the game entered the final 20 minutes we had a glorious chance to score the third. Copyright 2022 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Eddie Nketiah had earned a corner after a run and shot that Lukasz Fabianski got down well to turn wide. Shortly afterwards we retook the lead. Another inswinging corner caused problems, the ball was half cleared to Gabriel Martinelli and he crossed for compatriot Gabriel to head in from close range.

Mikel Arteta's side were far from their best at West Ham but they showed signs of growing up at the London Stadium.

All the same Arsenal still found a way here, taking advantage of West Ham’s lack of height through set-piece goals from Holding and Gabriel Magalhães. And to give him his due Tavares was still surging at the end, winning a crucial header in his area before starting a counterattack. He was hooked during the first half against Nottingham Forest in January, substituted early against Crystal Palace last month and was very fortunate only to give away one penalty against Manchester United last weekend, while against West Ham he spent large portions of the game simply knocking easy passes straight out of play, needlessly putting his team under pressure. Is he soon to be found hiding in a laundry basket on a big Champions League night at the Emirates? There is certainly something about Arsenal that rubs opponents up the wrong way. With Kieran Tierney out for the season, Tavares is a worry for Arteta. When Tottenham watch this game they will know where to attack Arsenal in next week’s pivotal north London derby. West Ham were repeatedly finding space down that flank, repeatedly running through the same passing sequences to send Vladimir Coufal away, and it was not much of a surprise that Tavares was caught out eventually, the Portuguese’s positioning all over the place when Jarrod Bowen cancelled out Arsenal’s lead on the stroke of half-time. Midway through the first half of an utterly forgettable London derby, Nuno Tavares picked up the ball near the halfway line and set off on an adventure.

Having a season without European football has been impactful for Arsenal, and that freshness has them on the inside track for a top-four finish.

They will need a bigger, better squad to compete on two fronts, but this one is suddenly ticking along in the Premier League promisingly once again. While you've got a young team and you're trying to get a good enough squad together ... even last year, Arsenal were in the semifinal of the Europe League last year, we're in it this year, and it became quite a difficult season for them because of that. Takehiro Tomiyasu returned to the line-up only to later hobble off injured, while Nuno Tavares had one of those all-action afternoons in which he looks simultaneously a threat and a liability in almost every passage of play. With their next attack, Saka forced Fabianski to turn a low shot behind at his near post and from the resulting corner, Gabriel eventually scored. They have won just four of their past 14 games in all competitions as exertions at home and abroad begin to catch up with them. LONDON -- It has long felt as though Arsenal's absence from Europe this season would provide them a telling advantage at some stage, and Sunday's 2-1 win at West Ham was it.

Arsenal fans including myself were fairly optimistic heading into today's clash with West Ham, but that optimism slowly turned into nerves ahead of kick-off ...

The uncertainty from Arsenal's point of view is certainly clear to see, with West Ham proving to be difficult to break down and keep quiet. West Ham meanwhile found themselves enduring a mixed run of form and recently lost 2-1 in the Europa League semi-final first leg against Eintracht Frankfurt. David Moyes' side travels to Germany next week for the crucial second leg decider, leading to many believing he would name a significantly weakened starting eleven.

Arsenal reclaimed a Champions League spot from rivals Tottenham with a 2-1 victory over West Ham at the London Stadium.

45’ - GOAL! WEST HAM 1 –1 ARSENAL – Vladimir Coufal broke down the right and pulled the ball back to Bowen, who had found a pocket of space in the box. For a moment however the Arsenal keeper looked in trouble. Subs: Smith Rowe - 6, Cedric - 6, Lokonga – n/a 54’ - GOAL! WEST HAM 1 – 2 ARSENAL – Martinelli dinked in a wonderful cross towards the back post, which was headed in by Gabriel. Lukasz Fabianski got a hand to it, but the effort was too powerful to stop. Subs: Yarmolenko – n/a, Antonio - 5, Soucek - 5, Holding was also defensively solid and on the end of a number of crucial blocks in first half that denied West Ham the chance to take an early lead.

The Gunners had been knocked out of the last Champions League qualification spot by north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur earlier on Sunday after they beat ...

"You have to find a way to win and today we won ugly. We adapted. Advertisement

Arsenal cannot finish any lower than sixth in the Premier League, meaning they will be back in Europe next season, after beating West Ham in a game that was ...

After a season in the European wilderness, Arteta’s side can now officially prepare for trips around the continent ahead of next season. The Brazilian centre-back has chipped in with some valuable goals this season, and he was once again on hand to turn in his fourth of the campaign when he nodded in Gabriel Martinelli’s cross at the back post. The best chance in the opening half hour fell to West Ham, but Holding was on hand to block Manuel Lanzini’s shot at the back post. There is no doubt that they will have to raise their game over the final four matches to ensure they will be back dining at Europe’s top table next season, especially when they play Spurs in just under a fortnight. That would have been the aim for Arsenal when they kicked off their campaign back in August, but they will now see that as the bare minimum as they approach the finish line with Champions League qualification very much in their own hands. It was a result that ramped up the pressure on Arteta’s side, but goals from centre-backs Rob Holding and Gabriel Magalhaes were enough to give them the victory they needed to restore their two-point advantage with four games remaining.

Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka remains a key figure in Mikel Arteta's starting line-up but a summer move away from the Emirates remains a real possibility ...

“We need some balance in everything that we do,” Arteta said, when discussing Xhaka’s importance. My heart was telling me, ‘You can’t leave this football club like this.'" He told me to give him six months and then if I still wanted to leave, no problem. I felt I could trust him. “I liked his warmth. It was an incident that led to the midfielder being stripped of the captaincy and he has since admitted that his "suitcases were literally by the door" in the immediate aftermath, with a move back to Germany all but agreed.

Spurs have four huge games ahead of them in their bid to secure Champions League football for next season.

There was also the reverse fixture back in December, where Spurs took a point in a 2-2 draw. If they are to take any positives heading into the game, then Jurgen Klopp’s side may be fatigued, with Tuesday’s Champions League clash against Villarreal still to come. Speaking after the win, the Italian said: “It was a good performance against a really good team.

Rob Holding starred at both ends of the pitch in our 2-1 win over West Ham on Sunday, scoring his first Premier League goal to break the deadlock, ...

Copyright 2022 The Arsenal Football Club plc. he laughed. "It would have been nice to go in one-nil, but he gave us all a shouting and telling off and we came out and looked more like a team and played how he wanted to play."

Ben White missed his first Premier League game since August, with a tight hamstring injury, while Bukayo Saka and Takehiro Tomiyasu were both withdrawn late ...

Tomiyasu has just that he had been out for so long and could not continue. Bukayo was fine, he was really fatigued and he has been through a little injury as well. Copyright 2022 The Arsenal Football Club plc.

Aaron Ramsdale has claimed that he didn't know Tottenham Hotspur beat Leicester City following Arsenal's victory against West Ham United.

The former Bolton defender added: "It’s going to be touch and go at times. Man of the match Holding weighed in on the top-four situation, urging his teammates to deal with the pressure that they will face in the next few weeks. Every game from now until the end of the season is vital for us to get three points for that fourth place, or third place if we look even higher."