MX23RW : Wednesday, November 27 13:57:02| >> :60:2056:2056:

Eddie Nketiah: 'Arsenal want to be challenging for trophies'

Eddie Nketiah: 'Arsenal want to be challenging for trophies'
© Reuters
The young forward scored Saturday's winner against West Ham.

Eddie Nketiah insists Arsenal have a taste for trophies after he came off the bench to score a late winner at the expense of West Ham on Saturday night.

Mikel Arteta's side have won their opening two Premier League fixtures as they look to build a strong league campaign on the back of FA Cup and Community Shield success.

Nketiah struck with five minutes remaining to secure a 2-1 win after the Hammers – who were the better team for much of the contest – had levelled through Michail Antonio following Alexandre Lacazette's opener.

The three points will be seen as vital with the Gunners now entering a run of difficult fixtures that sees them face five of the seven teams that finished above them last year.

But Nketiah wants to keep up the winning feeling on the back of their recent silverware.

"We want to be winning games and we want to be challenging for stuff," the told the club's official website.

"It's a great start and we're looking to build on it and keep pushing and hopefully get more points in the future.

"Everyone is raring to go, everyone is buzzing and we've had a taste of success and we're hungry for more. It's been a great start and we're looking to keep that going throughout the season."

Eddie Nketiah, right, celebrates his goal with Dani Ceballos
Eddie Nketiah, right, celebrates his goal with Dani Ceballos (Will Oliver/PA)

Nketiah's goal was set up by Dani Ceballos, just a week on from a clash between the pair in the warm-up ahead of the win over Fulham.

"That's the beauty of this sport," Arteta said when asked about the pair combining for the winner.

"They were in the headlines last week for something that happened between them, it would have been negative. Today, they found a way to understand each other and create a winning goal."

Asked about the incident himself, Nketiah replied: "There was a bit of a coming together. I was a bit upset with the challenge but we made up pretty quickly and we got on with it.

"It was a great pass across, good vision from him, I just tried to stay onside and make sure I was behind the ball. It was a pretty easy finish from there, but it was a great ball."

West Ham boss David Moyes was left frustrated with two VAR decisions which went against his side – a tight offside call with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for Lacazette's goal and a potential handball in the box by Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhaes that went unpunished.

Arthur Masuaku, right
Arthur Masuaku, right, took encouragement from West Ham's performance (Julian Finney/PA)

But the general performance of his side – especially on the back of an insipid performance in a 2-0 loss at Newcastle on the opening day – would have pleased Moyes and full-back Arthur Masuaku knows they need to take the positives from the Emirates Stadium.

"It was a decent team performance, but not the result we wanted," he told whufc.com.

"We just have to take the positives from this game because as a team I think we played well. We showed a great team spirit and we played well as a team.

"Last week was a poor performance against Newcastle, and the gaffer told us that we need to change this – we need to play as a team and be hard to beat.

"We've shown that we can compete against these teams. We have a strong team and if we play like we did on Saturday, we will win games."

ID:415153: cacheID:415153:1false2false3false:QQ:: from db desktop :LenBod:restore:8456:
Restore Data
Share this article now:
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta pictured on September 19, 2020
Read Next:
Mikel Arteta admits Arsenal were "lucky" to beat West Ham
>
rhs 2.0
Today's games header
Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Liverpool1210112481631
2Manchester CityMan City127232217523
3Chelsea126422314922
4Arsenal126422112922
5Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton126422116522
6Tottenham HotspurSpurs1261527131419
7Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest125431513219
8Aston Villa125431919019
9Fulham125341717018
10Newcastle UnitedNewcastle125341313018
11Brentford125252222017
12Manchester UnitedMan Utd124441313016
13Bournemouth124351617-115
14West Ham UnitedWest Ham124351519-415
15Everton122551017-711
16Leicester CityLeicester122461523-810
17Wolverhampton WanderersWolves122372028-89
18Ipswich TownIpswich121651323-109
19Crystal Palace121561017-78
20Southampton121110924-154


Sports Mole provides in-depth previews and predictions for every match from the biggest leagues and competitions in world football.
Argentina's Lionel Messi kisses the World Cup trophy after collecting the Golden Ball award on December 18, 2022Sign up for our FREE daily preview newsletter direct to your inbox!