Mikel Arteta is clearly a man in his dream job, buzzing a bit following a 1-1 draw between Arsenal and Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.
“I’m very pleased with some of the things I’ve seen in terms of attitude, character, the passion we showed and the fighting spirit the team showed,” he said, via Football.London. “Spot on. Probably better than I expected over 90 minutes.”
The Gunners went behind 1-0 during a rain-soaked day on England’s South Coast, only to see Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang score an equalizer.
Wasteful on the day, Arteta saw enough to feel hope for the future.
He was especially complimentary of Mesut Ozil, who was credited with four key passes but received mixed reviews from many.
“To be fair, his attitude in training since the day that I walked in the building has been incredible,” Arteta said. “I’ve seen this and I said I would give a clean slate to everybody and that was for him too. When we were preparing and watching where we could hurt the opponent, we believed he could be a key point. Like this, he responded, did what he had to do and we could have put two or three goals in the net because of him.”
