Article by Daniel Grigore – Published on Sunday, 08 February 2026, 11:52 / Updated on Sunday, 08 February 2026 11:53
Mikel Arteta (43), Arsenal's coach, laughed at the rhetoric that his team would be dependent on set pieces.
In Mikel Arteta's tenure, especially in the previous 2-3 seasons, Arsenal built a reputation as a specialist in set pieces, at least in attacking ones.
The Premier League leader has scored many goals from static moments of play, most of them from corners, so that his rivals have applied the label of “anti-football”.
On Saturday night, against Sunderland, things were different. Arsenal won 3-0all goals being scored from action, the first by Martin Zubimendi, the others by Viktor Gyokeres. On this occasion, the Swede reached milestone 8 in this championship.
With a big smile, Mikel Arteta laughed off Arsenal's naysayers: 'Yes, I'm very angry'
In his flash interview with the BBC, Mikel Arteta was asked about this: “I'm sure you don't care what other people say, but you scored 3 goals from action today. Does that help you stop the rhetoric that you only scored from set-pieces?”
“Yes, but I'm upset that I didn't sign up from fixed phases. Very angry” Arteta said, smiling broadly as he uttered the last words.
Mikel Arteta's expression when he answered the question
Separately, about the victory against the newly promoted, Arteta showed “very very happy for most of the game and not conceding a goalbecause we met a very difficult opponent. They are very good at what they do, they excel at breaking up play, playing last man, breaking pressure and keeping the ball.
It's very hard to string together dangerous game sequences and maintain a steady pace. But we knew that, and the first goal helped enormously to unlock this phase of the game.”
The “gunners” coach kept praising Gyokeresthe author of two goals in just half an hour on the field:
“I think the way he came on was important, he was ready straight away. We played every three days, we know how important the bench players are, the impact they have on the team, on the results and on our current position. So I'm very pleased.
It's the kind of character we've come to expect. And obviously, when you put on this shirt, you have a lot of responsibility and the expectations are huge. You have to live with it.”
