Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta left ‘concerned’ after Chelsea win

Mikel Arteta admitted it had been win or bust for Arsenal as they bounced back to the top of the table with a 3-1 win over Chelsea. But he is worried about Gabriel Magalhaes’ injury and also claimed his side should’ve scored four or five goals to really rub it in against the Blues.

Odegaard scored twice and Gabriel Jesus added a third to secure the win long before Noni Madueke added a second-half consolation in a strong response to losing to Manchester City on Sunday. Afterwards, Arteta admitted that the London derby had been a must-win game and revealed he has banned talk even of heads dropping after fighting for 10 months just to be in contention.

Though he felt it could’ve been an even more dominant win and raised concerns about the fitness of starting centre-half Gabriel post-match. He said: “How important was the win? I don’t have a number but personally a lot.

“If we want to have any chance to win this league we have to win today. We want to be back on top and our job was back today. We cannot drop our heads. To be in the position we are in after 10 months, I am not going to allow anybody not to talk about it and feel it.

“For sure we still have belief, we discussed that. I know we are taking our players to the very, very  limit to be where we are. But there are four games to go and we are top.”

The only worry for Arteta was seeing Gabriel limp off the pitch with the extent of the problem due to become clearer after scans. “I am a bit concerned because he is not normally somebody who leaves the pitch,” he said.

The Spaniard also admitted he was disappointed his side did not score more goals. He complained: “After 60 minutes, we should have scored four or five. We then allowed them to play a little bit and we should have managed the game a little bit better.”

Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has more to worry about and warned his players that they do too – their places. “Now it is five games to compete with each other like Noni Maduake did tonight to show he should be in the team,” Lampard said.

“Somewhere this season we have lost that kind of feeling. I don’t care about the factors. I am becoming more practical – the players that do show they have the motivation will get the improvement in the last five games.”