Arteta charges Arsenal players to extend Premier League lead against Everton

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By Martin Graham | 1st Mar 2023

Mikel Arteta has called for his Arsenal players to put up a strong fight against Everton and claim all three points against the Toffees as the season approaches the business end of things.

As it stands, the Gunners lead the way in the Premier League by two points ahead of reigning champions Manchester City, having played a game less.

Arsenal could extend their lead to five points if they manage to claim a win against Everton on Wednesday night.

Asides the apparent need to solidify their lead at the top, Mikel Arteta and company will be plotting for revenge just over three weeks ago that the Gunners fell to their second defeat of the season at Goodison Park, in Sean Dyche’s first game in charge of the Toffees.

Arteta calls for improved performance against Everton

Arsenal are favourites to win the reverse fixture against everton but Mikel Arteta is adamant that his side must do better than they did three weeks ago at Merseyside.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference, he said: “It’s a case of doing things better than we did when we played them a few weeks ago and earning the right to win the game. Hopefully tomorrow we will play much better than we did that day.

“It’s like with any opponent. We showed [the players] what they do, what they are about, what we expect to do to try to beat them and nothing different.

“With Sean, it’s quite clear what he’s done and where the success they’ve had is coming from. Tomorrow we’ll prepare the game in an appropriate and similar way [to the away match].”

Giving an insight into his preparation ahead of the Everton game, he added: “We have to look at certain matches, what they do and try to get the right tactics to beat them – and as well the same mentality and expectation of what we demand in the game.

“We can’t control how the opponents are feeling or how they prepare for the games. What we have to do is tomorrow in front of our crowd go full tilt, go to win the game, play well and compete really well against this team.

“Tomorrow we expect to have the same support because with that, we’re going to be closer to winning the game for sure.”

Things continue to look good in favour of the Gunners but games like these will go a long way to determine if the north London side can go all the way in the Premier League. A win against Everton will put them in a good position once again and all eyes will be at the Emirates Stadium in a fixture that will no doubt impact the title race a great deal.