“It is easy to be next to someone when they are winning.”
Everton beat Arsenal 1-0 in a shock result that may have a huge ripple effect for the course of the season as it cuts the Gunner’s lead at the top down to just five points.
It was Sean Dyche’s first game in charge of The Toffees and they certainly seemed to respond to his methods as they defended heroically and scored a well worked goal through James Tarkowski.
Speaking after the game Arteta explained why his side lost and why Everton were so effective with their game plan.
“We had loads of the ball but we lacked that purpose and quality in the final third, we generated many chances. But then we conceded and they slowed the game down and we struggled.
“They do this to every team that is their strength with the height, the physicality is their strength, if you want to control the game against them you have to control this. We did not do that today.
“We needed more composure and to control emotionally the game better. We gave away so many unnecessary free-kicks and that’s what they want.”
More significantly, when being interviewed by BT Sports, the journalist asked Arteta how he plans to respond to his players.
The ‘go to’ reaction would be to slate them, be frustrated with them, and make his disappointment in them visible, but instead he decided to take a different route.
The Spaniard instead explained how he will “love them” rather than using the old ‘hairdryer’ tact that managers of the past would rely on.
“Today I love them much better than the week before or a month ago. It is easy to be next to someone when they are winning well. I am still so proud of all of these players, they deserve it.
“This is not going to be a rose pathway. This is going to be tricky and we will have to dig in and play much better than we did today.”
In the modern era where players need an arm around the shoulder more than a kick up the backside, no one seems to better epitomise this than the former Arsenal and Everton star.
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