Mikel Arteta believes his Arsenal squad are better equipped to handle the emotion of a north London derby than when they suffered a 3-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur in May.
The Gunners host rivals Spurs at Emirates Stadium on Saturday lunchtime aiming to extend their stay at the top of the Premier League — almost five months after a damaging defeat helped Antonio Conte’s side pip them to Champions League qualification.
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“Have the squad learned from that defeat to Tottenham? Yes,” Arteta said. “It’s a different context. We go to that game as well with many different circumstances in terms of players that we had available and not available to play that game. What happened in that. You take the lessons, you learn from it and you move on.”
Rob Holding was sent off as a brace from Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min‘s second-half strike gave Tottenham an easy victory, after which Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale admitted the occasion had affected his teammates.
“I think everyone’s emotions got [carried away]…, especially what was riding on it, especially for a team that haven’t done it before, I think that’s where we became unstuck,” Ramsdale told Amazon’s ‘All or Nothing’ documentary.
Arsenal have since signed five new players including Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko, both multiple trophy winners at Manchester City, and have shown greater resolve in winning six of their opening seven matches this term.
Arteta was furious with referee Paul Tierney after the game in May, claiming the game was “destroyed” by his decisions but when asked what he wanted to see from the officials this weekend — with Anthony Taylor in line to take charge — the Gunners boss said: “Let him do his job. That’s it.”