'I just look forwards'

After four consecutive wins, our impressive streak was brought to an end at the hands of our north London rivals on Thursday night.

Defeat against Tottenham is bound to leave a sour taste in the mouth of anyone associated with the club, but Mikel Arteta is keen not to dwell on the result and insists his focus instantly turned to the challenge posed by Newcastle United on Monday night.

“I just look forwards,” the boss said in his pre-match press conference ahead of our trip to St James' Park.

"I said after the press conference, that game was lost, we were disappointed, but we didn't have any time to recover and we have a huge game to play on Monday against Newcastle and full focus and energy was just on that."

It's said that a manager can often learn more about his players after defeat than victory, and Arteta revealed exactly what he's learnt from his squad since Thursday's disappointing result.

"How lucky I am to have them," he added.

"How they stand under any difficulty, how much they are looking forward to play on Monday, how excited they are about the challenge ahead, because we all know everything that we've been through throughout the season and how much we have to fight to be in this position.

"I'm expecting the same excitement from them that they've shown me every day.

"The way they've come in today with the energy that they were with today to play the game and very willing to go there and perform at the highest level."