Mikel on landmark win, Saka and Zubimendi | Interview | News

Mikel Arteta’s 300th match as our manager ended in a 2-0 victory over West Ham United and the Spaniard had plenty to celebrate at Emirates Stadium.

Goals from Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka, who brought up 100 Premier League goals contributions in Arsenal red with his spot kick, sealed three points in N5.

Mikel’s journey with us started back in December 2019 at Bournemouth and after bringing up another victory on home soil, our manager was delighted with the performance and journey he’s been on over the last six years. 

“I’m very happy, 300 games for this club,” he said. “A huge amount of gratitude to everybody that has been around in this journey, beautiful journey. Today we wanted to celebrate with a victory, we certainly have done it. Now we have the international break, and I think we are in a very good position in every competition.” 

One player who started in his first game in charge as well as today was Saka, who also brought up 200 Premier League appearances in our victory, donning the armband after Martin Odegaard’s first half substitution.

Reflecting on his journey with Bukayo, Arteta said: “Just a joy to witness his evolution as a player, the way he has matured, where he is in his personal life as well, how his role has evolved within the team, within the club as well and the national team. 

“I think it’s tremendous what he’s doing, to hit the numbers that he’s hitting at his age and the impact that he has in the team. It’s something very, very privileged to witness and hopefully many more to come.” 

Martin Zubimendi is enjoying a fine start to his life in N5, nominated for back-to-back Player of the Month awards, and Mikel took time to praise our midfield maestro. 

“Super because it’s very difficult, and the holding midfielder is one of the most difficult positions to play in this league.

“We knew that he had the quality but to do that, to fulfil the role immediately in a big club like this one, surrounded by players with the opposition that you face every week, very difficult to do and I think he’s going in the right trajectory and helping the team a lot.”

It’s now eight wins from 10 to kick off the 2025/26 season, keeping seven clean sheets in the process, something which Mikel puts down to hard work on the training pitch.

He added: “It requires a lot of focus, a lot of determination, a lot of discipline and we have that with every member of the team, that’s the good thing. It’s not only about the back line or David, it’s our habits, how much we are willing to defend, obviously how dominant we are with the ball as well, to spend as little time as possible defending our box. So, overall, very happy.”

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