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Football London
Football London
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Connor O'Neill & Greg Johnson

Every word of David Luiz's impassioned interview to back Mikel Arteta and his changes at Arsenal

David, it seemed the hunger was back and a lot commitment out there and a fantastic win?

David Luiz: "Yeah I think it was great. We did a great first half and we were a mature team in the second half because we have to be honest and humble to admit that physically we are not ready.

"We showed that second half against Chelsea and we showed that today. But when physically you are not there you have to put your hearts and this team is in the moment now to change a lot of things.

"We can not change zero to 10 in one day. one week, or one month. But it is beautiful to see the kids how they start to understand the commitment, the behaviours and what they have to do every single day to achieve big things in life and big things in football.

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"So I think we showed that today and we are going to do big things in the future, but step-by-step."

Sokratis, you haven’t won a Premier League game here since the start of October so it was overdue and you could see the joy from the fans too?

Sokratis Papastathopoulos: “Yeah like David said we have to start again. I think we also have a lot of space to improve.

"Second half we didn’t play like the first half. But I think every game is better and we started to play. I hope the New Year brings the best.”

Was it because of the Chelsea result the other day that the nervous crept in in the second half?

Sokratis Papastathopoulos: "Yeah of course we know we are not ready to fight for 90 minutes.

"And for this second half again today we was struggling, but I think every player now likes the way play and like I said before the fan is back.

"We have to try more and play better and better in every game.”

Are the players clear in what their jobs are now and the respect for the manager’s changes you can see it on the pitch?

David Luiz: "To fight we are ready. Not with all the guns but to fight we are ready.

"I think I said it last week that Mikel is a great coach. He knows football. He was a great player. He brings things where I believe in his philosophy and I think he can improve every single player.

"And in life when you are happy the results can be totally different. I think I always like to use the metaphor that if you sleep happy you can sleep for hours, but if you sleep sad, just for eight hours.

"So if you work with happiness and you work with believing in what you are doing it is totally different so I am happy with everybody but you need to understand our season is not there.

"We didn't start very well. We start very bad, I have to be honest. But things can change and there is still some titles to fight for and an improvement for the team and in the future."

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