Arteta ‘raging’ at Arsenal trio during Napoli win – ‘We missed so many great chances’
Mikel Arteta wasn’t at all happy with an “ambling” Arsenal trio in their 3-0 win over Napoli on Wednesday but insists he was delighted with the overall performance despite their profligacy in front of goal.
The Gunners had 26 shots to the hosts’ five and had racked up an xG of 4.05 on a night on which their finishing let them down.
Viktor Gyokeres was handed his first start of the season and failed to stake his claim for a spot in the starting XI and Arsenal once again needed their in-form captain, Martin Odegaard, to secure them three points.
Arteta was generally pleased with what he saw from his side despite them “missing so many great chances”.
“We fully deserved the three points,” Arteta told TNT Sports after the game. “The performance probably doesn’t reflect the result, the team was superb.
“We showed quality in a lot of moments to break them down and it was a shame because we missed so many great chances.
“On any other day the result would be different. We should have done it in a different way because of the amount of chances we created but we got the win in the end.”
Arteta added: “I’m very, very happy. A really tough place to come and a really different environment to play football – a beautiful one, by the way – against a really good team.
“I love the way we attacked the game, the way we competed, the hunger that we showed, the desire to dominate, to come here, to own the pitch, and the quality that we showed against a team that it’s so difficult to create chances against.
“We created a huge amount of them and the result doesn’t reflect what we saw on the pitch.
“The players were immense, and to play with that personality, with that conviction and with that quality in the Champions League away from home, it’s something that I’m extremely pleased about.”
READ: Gyokeres blows huge Arsenal chance with nine-touch nightmare at Napoli
Arteta ‘rages’ at Gunners trio
But TNT Sports co-commentator Lucy Ward spotted the Arsenal boss “raging” at Kai Havertz, Noni Madueke and Christos Tzolis for failing to track back as Napoli attempted to counter attack and find an equaliser late in the game.
“Mikel Arteta was absolutely raging on the sidelines that Havertz, Madueke and Tzolis weren’t recovering after that attack,” she said.
“It was so interesting. As the Arsenal attack finished, those three all sort of ambled back, and Mikel Arteta ran down the sidelines and shouted at them to recover.”
