Mikel Arteta loves Arsenal’s attacking mentality during ruthless goalscoring run

Mikel Arteta insists there is no secret to Arsenal’s recent success as he praised his side following victory over Newcastle.

The Gunners eased to a 4-1 win at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday night to move two points off the top of the Premier League summit.

A Sven Botman own goal set them on their way before goals from Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Jakub Kiwior rounded off another fine display from Arteta’s men, although the returning Joe Willock’s late header ruined another clean sheet.

Two points

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Arsenal may have laboured to a narrow 1-0 defeat in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie in Porto on Wednesday – but their domestic form has been imperious.

Asked what has clicked in a run that included 6-0 and 5-0 away wins at West Ham and Burnley, respectively, before beating Newcastle, Arteta said: “We’re in a good moment. Players are performing individually, it is not any secret.

“Things are flowing. We’re scoring goals in different ways and especially we want more. When we score one, we want two, or three, or four. I love that mentality from the team.

“We train every day the best possible way and look after ourselves. First of all though, belief. Belief in yourself that you can improve and always get better. Also getting players back.

“The more players we have back, the more competition there will be in the team, the more alternatives to impact the game. Especially we have to make sure we believe we can do it.”

Jorginho returned to the Arsenal side for the game against the Magpies and put in a man-of-the-match display.

The Italy midfielder has impressed in most outings this season, but was only on the bench in Portugal.

“He’s a top player,” added Arteta. “Especially when opponents have certain behaviours and set-ups, the way I imagine the game, he was going to have a big impact.

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“After, you have to do it at this level. When he’s not playing consistently, credit to him because he was magnificent again.”

Newcastle were not at the races and have now shipped 23 goals in their past eight league games.

“It is a concern,” manager Eddie Howe conceded when asked about the recent defensive record.

“Of course, we are working on things behind the scenes, but that probably was not evident in today’s performance.

“It is a combination of things, we didn’t do well from corners, knew how good they are in those situations and the third goal as well.

“We were the dominant team and we’d have been right back in the game if we’d got that goal, so difficult moments defensively.

“I don’t think we truly got going in the first half, they put us under pressure, I thought that would be just the start of the game, but at no stage did we really come out of that moment.

“We did not compete well enough which is not like us. It is something to learn from.”