Mikel Arteta challenged his Arsenal players to be relentless in their bid for the Premier League title after they moved five points clear of Manchester City, declaring: We re not going to stop .
Gabriel Martinelli s brace, coupled with goals from Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard, helped Arsenal crush struggling Everton 4-0 in their game in hand over rivals City on Wednesday.
While Arsenal started slowly against Sean Dyche s side, they eventually turned on the style to win their third league game in a row – and claim their 100th league victory against Everton.
The Gunners commanding win puts daylight between them and second-placed City – who briefly overhauled them at the summit following a 3-1 victory at the Emirates Stadium last month.
Asked whether Arsenal s thrashing of Everton made them title favourites, Arteta said: You know my answer there!
What I like is that everybody has the enthusiasm to do it, and we re not going to stop that – we have to promote that.
But the way to promote that is by looking at this game and understanding that we have to do a lot of things better, especially in the first half.
We can play better and make sure we prepare really well against Bournemouth, because that s going to be a tough game.
12 Arsenal have scored 4+ goals in a match against Everton for the 12th time in the Premier League, more than any side has done against another in the competition s history. Flattened.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe)
Asked how Arsenal could find the mental strength required to beat City to the title, Arteta said: It is something that we have to train and discuss and build.
It is not easy, but a lot of time it happens through experiences and most of the time they are experiences that you don t want to go through, but the calendar and fixtures are going to give that.
Sometimes you are where we are now, sometimes it is three points [difference], two points, minus two – it is going to happen and we have to live with that.
Arsenal take on relegation-threatened Bournemouth in their next game on Saturday, before switching their attentions to a Europa League last-16 tie against Sporting CP.
The Opta Premier League projections following tonight s games
— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst)