Mikel Arteta challenged his Arsenal players to be relentless in their bid for the Premier League title after they moved five points clear of Manchester City, declaring: “We’re not going to stop”.
On Wednesday, Arsenal defeated struggling Everton 4-0 in their matchup against rival City thanks to goals from Gabriel Martinelli twice, Bukayo Saka, and Martin Odegaard.
Arsenal started out against Sean Dyche’s team slowly, but they eventually turned it up to win their third straight league game and their 100th league victory against Everton.
Following a 3-1 victory at the Emirates Stadium last month, second-placed City briefly overtook the Gunners at the top. However, the Gunners’ commanding victory puts distance between them and City.
Asked whether Arsenal’s thrashing of Everton made them title favorites, Arteta said: “You know my answer there!
“What I like is that everybody has the enthusiasm to do it, and we’re not going to stop that – we have to promote that.
“But the way to promote that is by looking at this game and understanding that we have to do a lot of things better, especially in the first half.
“We can play better and make sure we prepare really well against Bournemouth because that’s going to be a tough game.”
Asked how Arsenal could find the mental strength required to beat City to the title, Arteta said: “It is something that we have to train and discuss and build.
“It is not easy, but a lot of time it happens through experiences, and most of the time they are experiences that you don’t want to go through, but the calendar and fixtures are going to give that.
“Sometimes you are where we are now, sometimes it is three points [difference], two points, minus two – it is going to happen and we have to live with that.”
Arsenal take on relegation-threatened Bournemouth in their next game on Saturday, before switching their attentions to a Europa League last-16 tie against Sporting CP.
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