2017-18 Premier League season opener: Arsenal 4-3 Leicester
Lacazette scores his first EPL goal at the second minute of the match.After only 5 minutes both clubs were leveled 1-1 and we ended the first half in 2-2. Then, Arsenal overcame 3-2 deficit with less than 10 minutes to play. Giroud remains the savior. What a game this was, a seven goals thriller to open the Premier League! Welcome back Premier League.. we missed you.
on the win – and if he expected it to come like that…
At some stage it didn’t look like that, no. Overall I must say we kept going and the spirit of the team was absolutely outstanding and overall you could say as well we were punished on every single mistake tonight by a Leicester team who was very efficient going forward. And you could see that this team has quality and is used to playing together, but [we had] 70 per cent possession with 27 shots on goal. Leicester had three shots on target and scored three goals, so that shows you how efficient they were, but overall I must say if you look at that from a neutral point of view, for the first game it was a top-quality match. You want the Premier League to be the best league in the world and I think it has to produce this kind of game to produce interest and quality. Even people will say we conceded three goals, yes, but we scored four as well and the game was of quality.
on Lacazette scoring so early on…
Lacazette is simple in every game. He is stronger since he has joined us, you know and even when I played Giroud through the middle and him on the left, he did very well on the left, so overall I think he adapts slowly to the way we want to play and he is a collective player and an intelligent player as well.
on the defence…
Well if you were a manager and you would be on the bench when you’re 3-2 down with 20 minutes to go, and you win 4-3, you’re more happy than concerned. I feel as well that the goals we conceded, we can work together to get rid of that because one was a corner, one was a ball we lost in the build up and the third goal was on a corner again, so we conceded two goals on corners. We were quite good last year on corners and overall I believe that with a bit of work we can get that out of the system.
on what’s changed with Arsenal…
Yes, of course, I am convinced that we won 10 of the last 11 games, and we won against Man City in the semi-final and the final against Chelsea. Overall I am convinced that the team is focused and I see that every day in training.
It’s fantastic. I must say I opened the door for him at some stage because I know that it’s important for him to play, but I don’t want him to go and in the end he decided to stay. It was one of the days of recent weeks for me because I know how important he is, not only as a player, he is a fantastic player, but as well in the group. He has a big weight in the squad and it was a relief for me that he decided to stay.
