Mikel Arteta during Arsenal’s win over Napoli (Picture: Getty) Mikel Arteta was seen ‘raging’ at three of his players during Arsenal’s Champions League win over Napoli. The Gunners won all eight of their European league phase games last season and made an impressive start to this season’s campaign, beating Napoli 1-0 in Italy. Arsenal were the better side throughout but it looked as though their wastefulness in front of goal would cost them the three points until in-form Martin Odegaard popped up with a 75th-minute winner. Arteta was impressed with his team’s performance out in Naples and said his only disappointment was their inability to kill the game off sooner. Sign up for In The Mixer, Metro's football newsletter Get exclusive analysis and previews of the biggest games every Friday. Sign up now for free. ‘We fully deserved the three points,’ Arteta told TNT Sports after the game. ‘The performance probably doesn’t reflect the result, the team was superb. ‘We showed quality in a lot of moments to break them down and it was a shame because we missed so many great chances. ‘On any other day the result would be different. We should have done it in a different way because of the amount of chances we created but we got the win in the end.’ Martin Odegaard fired Arsenal past Napoli (Picture: Getty) On Odegaard’s latest influential performance, Arteta added: ‘Martin is contributing with goals that are impacting results which is what we want from our attacking players. ‘We want them to be decisive and certainly he was again today.’ While Arteta returned to north London a happy man, he was left ‘absolutely raging’ at three of his players as they looked to kill the game off. Odegaard celebrates Arsenal’s European win (Picture: Getty) Arsenal wasted a glorious chance to score a second late on and TNT Sports co-commentator Lucy Ward noticed Arteta screaming at Kai Havertz, Noni Madueke and Christos Tzolis to track back as Napoli attempted to counter. ‘Mikel Arteta was absolutely raging on the sidelines that Havertz, Madueke and Tzolis weren’t recovering after that attack,’ she said. ‘It was so interesting. As the Arsenal attack finished, those three all sort of ambled back, and Mikel Arteta ran down the sidelines and shouted at them to recover.’ “We missed so many big chances”Mikel Arteta shares his thoughts after Arsenal’s victory over Napoli 💭🎙️ @DannyJamieson | 📺 Watch live on TNT Sports & HBO Max pic.twitter.com/v559rbRAj0— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) September 9, 2026 Arsenal, who reached the Champions League final last season while lifting the Premier League trophy, have now won all five of their first games of the 2026-27 campaign. Assessing Arsenal’s performance against Italian giants Napoli, Arteta added: ‘I’m very, very happy. ‘A really tough place to come and a really different environment to play football – a beautiful one, by the way – against a really good team. ‘I love the way we attacked the game, the way we competed, the hunger that we showed, the desire to dominate, to come here, to own the pitch, and the quality that we showed against a team that it’s so difficult to create chances against. ‘We created a huge amount of them and the result doesn’t reflect what we saw on the pitch. ‘The players were immense, and to play with that personality, with that conviction and with that quality in the Champions League away from home, it’s something that I’m extremely pleased about.’ Arsenal’s next Champions League fixture is against Ligue 1 side Lille after the upcoming international break. For more stories like this, check our sport page. Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Comment now Comments Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google Add as preferred source
Playing away in the Champions League, it is always going to be tough, but I think with Gyokeres, you can feel the difference when he is playing compared to when Kai Havertz is. "Arsenal created chances before that and Gyokeres created a chance or two himself, but Arsenal just felt like a different team when Havertz was in there, maybe because there were some more familiar faces coming on to the pitch as well, the likes of Christos Tzolis and so on, but they looked different and it felt different, it felt more familiar."
Manuel Neuer is expected to hang up his gloves at the end of the season, but he wants to bow out by winning the Champions League. The post Neuer hoping to end Bayern career with third Champions League title appeared first on SoccerNews.
Como will play in the Champions League for the first time on Thursday, but Cesc Fabregas urged his players to stay calm against RB Leipzig. The post Fabregas: Como must treat Champions League debut like any other game appeared first on SoccerNews.
Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!There are, you suspect, quite a few folk with links to the London postcode of N17 who would be thoroughly grateful if Troy Parrott could stop popping up to score winning goals for a bit. The Republic of Ireland striker has barely unpacked his bags at Real Betis, yet he’s already ruined the afternoon of his former manager at Tottenham, pouncing to sink José Mourinho’s Real Madrid. Four days later? He made headlines again on his Bigger Cup debut at Lille. Two games, two goals, two match-winners. Not entirely shabby for a lad who was once given the classic Mourinho treatment and declared “not ready”. Mourinho, as ever, remains a central character in this particular soap opera. It was the Special One who handed a teenage Parrott his Premier League debut in December 2019, throwing him on during a 5-0 win over Burnley. It was also Mourinho who promptly decided the youngster needed a fair bit longer in the oven.Re: Ken Muir’s letter (yesterday’s Football Daily letters) and mention of Arbroath’s famous 36-0 victory over Bon Accord in 1885. On the same day, in the same competition and just 18 miles away, Dundee Harp defeated Aberdeen Rovers 35-0. Arbroath and Harp were rivals and after the final whistle, officials from Harp sent a telegram to Arbroath simply containing the result of their match and then retired to a pub to celebrate their world record. Later that evening, a reply was received which read ‘Arbroath 36-0 Bon Accord’. Both sides thought the other was winding them up. The results were not a surprise. Rovers and Bon Accord were both playing only their third official fixtures. Bon Accord arrived for their match with nine players and no goalkeeper, so played an outfield player in goal and two spectators made up their XI. The Aberdeen Weekly News reported that Arbroath’s keeper ‘neither touched the ball with hand or foot … but remained under the friendly shelter of an umbrella the whole time’. Arbroath also had seven goals disallowed. Unsurprisingly, the qualification rules for the Scottish Cup were changed for the following season” – Jamie Gaukroger.Call me one of those bluffers and chancers with ‘fantastic theories and philosophies’ if you will but, after sitting through the chaotic mess that was Real Madrid v Inter in Bigger Cup, two things spring to mind. Firstly, if Madrid has had an obvious gap of no central midfielder who can control the momentum and flow of the game for over two seasons, since Toni Kroos and Luka Modric, why ignore it yet again but spend £115m on yet another left-sided attacker? Secondly, even if you don’t have one, never mind two of those types of players, once you go 2-0 up in the 23rd minute against a team at home, can’t you just kick the ball five-10 yards to a teammate consistently, keep possession and tire the opposition out? As the late, great Johan Cruyff used to say: ‘As long as we’ve got the ball, they’re never going to score’” – Noble Francis.OK, Mike Wilner (Monday’s letters), I’ll bite. ‘What isn’t what it is?’ Football Daily is not a humorous teatime newsletter. ‘What has a club not won what it won?’ Senegal did not win Afcon. ‘When does a team not lose what it’s lost?’ USA USA USA ... did not lose Folarin Balogun against Belgium in the GWC. Is there a plausible weeklong riff here? Oh, yes. Yes there is. There most certainly is” – Chi. Continue reading...
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