Mikel Arteta reveals surprising reaction to Ben White and Oleksandr Zinchenko spat

Mikel Arteta has insisted that he 'loved' the post-match confrontation between Arsenal teammates Ben White and Oleksandr Zinchenko after their narrow win over Nottingham Forest on Tuesday.

The Gunners thoroughly dominated the game at the City Ground, with the goals eventually coming through Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka in the final 25 minutes after Arteta's side worryingly missed a boatload of chances prior to that. The returning Taiwo Awoniyi scored a late goal to reduce arrears for Forest, but Arsenal were able to hold on for an important 2-1 victory.

Following the win, White and Zinchenko exchanged words and had to be pulled apart from one another by teammates after things got quite heated.

Speaking to the press about the incident, Arteta insisted that he loved the passion shown by both players, who were arguing about the concession of a late goal.

"I love it," Arteta said. "They are demanding more from each other.

"They are not happy with the way they conceded and they are just trying to resolve it. It got a bit heated. But that means that it's enough. Playing the way we played the result has to be bigger and the clean sheet has to be there."

Arteta was also keen to discuss his side's result and performance itself, stating that he was pleased with how his team played.

"I'm really happy with the performance and with the result," he added. "It was still in our tummy, what happened here last year, and we wanted to put it right. 

"We want to generate some momentum now in the league. I think we've got that and the performance was very good. 

"I thought we completely dominated the game. We had to be patient…we didn't allow them to run. And we were able to generate chances in various ways, which is really pleasing to see for the team."

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