Arsenal breezed past relegation-threatened Ipswich Town at Portman Road on Sunday afternoon.
The Gunners were riding high from their victory at the Bernabeu in midweek, and they didn’t let the psychological come-down from a game of such magnitude affect them in Suffolk.
Mikel Arteta’s team cruised to a 4-0 win, courtesy of a brace from Leandro Trossard and goals from Gabriel Martinelli and Ethan Nwaneri.
The result sees Arsenal tighten their grip on second place, and ensure that three wins from their remaining five Premier League fixtures will guarantee them a place in the top five.
Kieran McKenna says Arsenal the ‘highest standard’ of team Ipswich have faced
Arsenal were rampant on Sunday afternoon, hardly allowing Ipswich to break beyond the halfway line.
Despite not sitting pretty at the summit of the Premier League table, the Gunners have arguably been the side that have received the most praise from the opposition for the way they play this season.
The likes of Ola Aina and Sander Berge have waxed lyrical about Arteta’s outfit in recent months, and Ipswich head coach Kieran McKenna is the latest to join the hype train.
“Yeah, a really tough game,” the Northern Irishman said after the clash in East Anglia on Sunday.
“One or two different games to a certain extent. Tough eleven v eleven, Arsenal started really well.
“Probably felt at the start of the game that it was maybe the highest standard that we’ve faced this year, to be honest. So, the group was absolutely at full stretch trying to compete.”
Arsenal limited Ipswich to just four shots and 0.17 expected goals throughout the 90 minutes at Portman Road, while they amassed 24 shots and 2.6 expected goals themselves.
After dropping points in recent weeks, this was a dominant response from the Gunners.
Mikel Arteta is in the elite bracket of coaches worldwide
Arteta coached a comprehensive two-legged victory against Real Madrid in the Champions League – a stunning indictment of his managerial quality.
The Spaniard may not garner the respect he deserves generally due to not yet delivering major honours to the Emirates, but the way opposition players and managers speak about his team is telling.
Teams hate playing against Arsenal, with how the Gunners suffocate the opposition and never give them a sniff, making them a miserable proposition to face.
If the North London outfit hadn’t been marred by injuries and been on the wrong side of some contentious refereeing decisions, they’d comfortably be battling Liverpool for the Premier League title.
With Arteta’s squad still young and hungry, they’re certainly not going anywhere over the next few years.
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