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Publication date: Sunday, September 20, 2020 6:58 AM
Mikel Arteta admits that Arsenal were lucky enough to narrowly win over West Ham with Eddie Nketiah coming off the bench to score the winning goal on a bad day at the office for the Gunners.
Arsenal entered the game after an excellent opening-day win over Fulham last weekend. His morale rose even higher this week when the captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang finally signs his new contract.
Also, the club is making progress on the transfer front. A deal for Houssem Aouar is coming up after two big developments.
As such, the Gunners were expected to enjoy a positive display against the visiting Hammers.
But he took a goal from Nketiah in the 85th minute to seal a 2-1 win. That was after Michail Antonio canceled Alexandre Lacazette’s opener on the edge of the break.
West Ham was narrowly beaten at Emirates Stadium before the lockout and was good again here. It was hard for them to leave with nothing courtesy of Nketiah’s contribution.
After the game, Arteta admitted that the attitude of his team, of taking victory when they were not playing well, was the most positive of the game.
“We were a bit lucky, but we found a way to win.” Arteta said.
“That is the mentality I want. In the end there are three points. There are many things to improve.
“We are still a long way from where we want to be. We are still adapting things, but it’s great to have six points already.
“Between 55 and 65 minutes I could see the team give up. I tried to pick them up and saw a different team in the last 20 minutes. We’re going to have games like that. “
Moyes unhappy with defeat
West Ham boss David Moyes felt his team would have deserved all three points, but highlighted the decisions of the assistant referee on video that went against the visitors.
There was a tight offside against Aubameyang for Arsenal’s first goal and a possible handball penalty against Gabriel Magalhaes that was rejected, with Moyes unhappy with the results of both.
“We should have won tonight or at least gotten a draw,” he said.
“A lot of things didn’t go well for us and we shut down at the last minute, which ultimately cost us.
“We are all really disappointed because we felt that our performance was good and we felt that the decisions let us down.
“Very thin margins in the first goal, then in handball, against Newcastle we had one that did not happen.
“We are not going to use them as excuses, but tonight we had a difficult night.
“It was a hugely improved performance from last week (a 2-0 loss at Newcastle), we were good on the ball and more composed.
“We were playing in a fit team, we are aware of that and I am disappointed that we did not come out with any points.”
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