Mikel Arteta pays Burnley the ultimate compliment after Arsenal are made to work for their win
Mikel Arteta was hugely complimentary about Burnley after his Arsenal side were made to work hard for their win at Turf Moor.
First-half goals from Viktor Gyokeres and Declan Rice handed the Gunners a 2-0 win that extends their lead at the top of the table to seven points.
Burnley, who fought back gallantly in the second-half without any reward, ultimately went down to only their second defeat on home turf under Scott Parker’s stewardship.
“I’m obviously very happy,” Arteta said afterwards.
“This is a really tough place to come. They’ve lost only once in 18 months here and that was against Liverpool with the last kick of the game to a penalty, so it’s very difficult.
“But I think we started the game exceptionally well in the first-half, it was one of the best that we've played. We scored two goals, generated another two or three big chances and conceded nothing, which gave us a platform.
“In the second-half we dropped the standard, especially with the ball and with our intentions to take more risks, to play more forwards, but again, defensively we were exceptional.
“We were a bit lucky their free kick hit the post at the end, but we keep the clean sheet.”
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Arteta added: “It’s difficult to face teams that want to defend in a low block and Burnley are very, very well organised.
“The big teams have struggled big time to generate chances and opportunities against them, but we certainly did that, especially in the first half. I’m happy with that, but there's still a lot of things to improve.
“We know the struggle we had last season when we drew a few games and we knew the challenge today and the level we had to get to to beat them. They have this spirit and this belief to get results here at home and you could feel that.”
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