Arteta calm after Everton loss: 'I love my players much more'


Mikel Arteta insists Arsenal are not feeling the pressure in the Premier League title race and says he loves his players more than ever despite losing 1-0 at Sean Dyche's Everton.

James Tarkowski's header on the hour mark gave Dyche a winning start to life at Goodison Park and condemned the Gunners to only their second league defeat of the season.

Arsenal's best chance came when Bukayo Saka saw his goalbound effort cleared off the line by Conor Coady as the visitors struggled to threaten Jordan Pickford's goal in the second period

Defeat left Arsenal five points clear at the top of the table, with title rivals Manchester City playing Tottenham on Sunday, but Arteta thinks his side are still relaxed

"But credit to them, this is what they train every single day. You have to defend really well to get your control and earn the right to play. For moments we did it and in other moments we didn't do it well enough to dominate in the game.

"In the last 10 or 15 minutes, particularly after we made the changes, we started to give away a lot of free-kicks and a lot of rash decisions

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