Mikel Arteta praises Eberchi Eze and reveals message to Arsenal players after huge win in title race | OneFootball

Arteta delighted as Gunners extend their lead at the top of the Premier League to four points

Mikel Arteta believes Eberechi Eze’s winner against Crystal Palace will fill him with the confidence needed to produce more magic moments for Arsenal.

The £60million summer signing lashed the ball into the bottom corner after a rebound from a set-piece fell to him on the edge of the box.

“That’s what big players do, and he’s certainly a big player,” said Arteta.

Eze scored the only goal against Crystal Palace

Arsenal FC via Getty Images

“And hopefully that’s going to give him a big boost and confidence to generate many more moments like this, because that’s the moment that sometimes defines a season.

“He did it very similarly last year, but against us, when he scored from that corner and directly on the post.

“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 No9 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 went really well.”

Arteta was delighted that his side ground out the win after dropping points at home against Palace last season.

The Gunners kept their fifth clean sheet in a row and they conceded just three times in 13 matches this season.

Arsenal capitalised on title rivals Liverpool losing 24 hours earlier and Manchester City slipping to defeat on Sunday.

Arteta’s side are now four points clear at the top of table, with Bournemouth sat in second place.

“I just told the boys that I probably value more this victory than any other victory this season,” said Arteta.

“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.

“And we have managed to be very stable, playing the game that we have to play.

“In the first half [we were] a bit stuck, we found a way to score the goal in the second one, we attacked better and we were more fluent.

“But with 1-0 we knew that we had to suffer, because it’s a team that has scored goals against any other opponent this season, so to keep the clean sheet is very, very important.”