Arteta calls Arsenal’s defeat to Sporting a ‘groundbreaking win’

Mikel Arteta said Tuesday’s 5-1 win over Sporting CP was a “groundbreaking win” and the best European away performance of his five-year spell as Arsenal manager.

Sporting were previously unbeaten in 19 games in all competitions this season but were defeated at the Estadio Jose Alvalade as goals from Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Magalhães, Bukayo Saka’s penalty and substitute Leandro Trossard secured a comfortable victory.

It is the first time Arsenal have scored five goals in a Champions League away game since October 2008 and the Gunners have won for only the second time in nine away games in the competition.

Arteta took charge of Arsenal in December 2019 and led them back to Europe’s premier club competition after a six-year absence. After being eliminated from the competition with a narrow 3-2 aggregate defeat in the quarter-finals last season, Arsenal remained at Atalanta and lost away to Inter Milan this season.

Asked if this was Arsenal’s best European away win under his management, Arteta replied: “Absolutely, especially against the opponent we played at home. I don’t think they’ve lost here in 18 months. They did.’ They were in top form and were better than anyone they played here. We are very happy to play at this level with the fluidity we played today.

“Definitely (it’s a breakthrough win) because the performance has been there a few times when we’ve played against big teams. We played against Paris Saint-Germain and were exceptional again. We played against Bayern Munich and were exceptional.”

“But we made a few mistakes and that cost us. That is the level. We have to be able to deal with it.

The result leaves Arsenal on 10 points after five games and in the top eight ahead of Wednesday’s games. The next game is against AS Monaco at the Emirates on December 11th.