Mikel Arteta saw his side move one step closer to lifting the Premier League title for the first time in years as Arsenal earned a huge victory over Crystal Palace on Sunday. The Gunners won 4-1 at the Emirates Stadium thanks to a Bukayo Saka brace around Gabriel Martinelli and Granit Xhaka's strikes.
Three points were added to the league table as a result and saw the side move eight points clear of title rival Manchester City by the end of the week. The Citizens hold a game in hand in the race, but Arsenal have the points on the board and one fewer hurdle to overcome by late May.
"Really happy, really pleased, the way we started the game I was already really pleased with how they reacted to Thursday," Arteta told the press after the game. "We took any question mark away from it, showed a lot of determination and purpose in our way of playing. Really happy to perform the way we did after playing 120 minutes, after losing two big players for us and then still compete and win the game in the way that we did."
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The Spaniard now has two weeks before his players are back in action for the final push towards lifting the Premier League trophy, with an international break underway. It gives the head coach and his team some time to reflect on another long stint that has included plenty of fixtures.
In that time, there will be plenty of focus on strengths and weaknesses, with set-pieces being an area to consider after conceding from yet another one against Palace. Discussing the issue, Arteta told reporters how they can improve in them, saying: "Training more, working more. Don’t give more hope to the opponent that that’s a weakness. We have tried to train it. We didn’t have a lot of time with the amount of games we’ve played in the last three weeks, but it’s for sure something that we need to do better."
He also added after that he wants the squad to take care over the next few weeks, saying: "That they [the international players] really look after themselves in this period. We will look after the players that are with us here. That they come back with the same mindset and hunger from before to go into Leeds which is the only important game right now. We know it."
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