Mikel Arteta called Arsenal‘s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace as his team’s “most valuable win of the season” after the Premier League title race turned in their favour.
Eberechi Eze‘s 39th-minute volley settled a hard-fought game against his former club which sent the Gunners four points clear at the top of the table as rivals Manchester City and Liverpool both lost.
Arsenal have won 11 out of 13 games in all competitions this season, but coming at the end of a week in which they beat Atlético Madrid 4-0 in the Champions League, Arteta said: “I just told the boys that I value more this victory than any other victory this season because we knew the difficulty of it.
“You come after playing every three days, you have a big opportunity as well with the things that happened during this weekend and I knew we play against a team that in my opinion has been one of the best recently in terms of organisation, how difficult they made it, how frustrated they can make you and the moment that you lose that concentration they will punish you for sure.”
Eze joined Arsenal in a £67.5 million move from Palace in the summer and Arteta hailed the midfielder’s ability to produce “magic moments” after scoring his first league goal for the Gunners.
Asked if it was the sort of contribution Eze was signed for, Arteta referenced a goal he scored for Palace against Arsenal in last season’s corresponding fixture.
“Yes, 100 percent — to strike the ball in the manner he did it, he did it very similarly last year but against us when he scored from that corner and directly [in off] the post,” said Arteta. “So he’s got the ability to do that. We know against a team that defend with that many bodies, so physical, don’t allow any space, the [number] nine defending your best player, you have to generate chaos or open space at some moments to generate big chances. He took the ball and the goal really well.
“That’s what big players do and he’s certainly a big player and hopefully that’s going to give him a big boost and confidence to generate many more moments like this because they are the moments that sometimes defines a season.”
