After making nine changes to his starting line-up, Mikel Arteta was delighted with how his side performed in our victory over Port Vale in the Carabao Cup third round.
Goals from Eberechi Eze and Leandro Trossard gave us a 2-0 victory at Vale Park, enough to see us through to the last 16, where we’ll face Brighton & Hove Albion at Emirates Stadium.
Kepa Arrizabalaga and Christian Norgaard were two of the changes made to the line-up, both making their first starts for us, and after the match, Mikel was happy with the victory.
He said: “It’s great to win, and the clean sheet too, the debut for Kepa as well, so I’m very, very pleased for him.
“We started the game very well, scored the goal, generated some big opportunities in the first half without conceding anything. In the second half we had certain moments that, with a direct play, we lost some control and dominance, something that we could have done better, and at the end, with the changes and the impact of the players, we managed to get back to that dominance and put the threat on goal that we needed to.
“As you’ve seen today, we made nine changes and the team can still perform in a really great way. The players that came from the bench made an impact again, so overall very happy.”
Read more Every word from Arteta’s post-Port Vale presser
It was the third time that Trossard has come off the bench to provide a goal or assist this season. The Belgian netted against Athletic Club, as well as providing an assist against the Basque side, to go with his assist against Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.
Mikel hailed Leo’s impact as he fired home his second goal of the season in the 85th minute of the contest.
“It’s what he does,” the boss said. “I think the ball from William was really good, the timing of the run and the quality of execution, top drawer.”
Over 3,000 of our supporters travelled north for the match and in front of a raucous 16,000 crowd, Mikel was feeling the love from our away fans.
He said: “Our supporters are very loud tonight, which is great to see. They travel with us everywhere, they are incredibly passionate with the team, so they deserve that connection at the end to go and say thanks to them and keep doing what we’re doing.”
Read more Brighton drawn in Carabao Cup fourth round
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