Mikel Arteta sends message after Arsenal players mock Man City and Erling Haaland | OneFootball

Both Gabriel and Myles Lewis-Skelly appeared to have points to prove

Mikel Arteta urged his Arsenal players to “focus on us” after a 5-1 hammering of bitter rivals Manchester City gave their title hopes a major boost.

Academy graduate Myles Lewis-Skelly marked his crucial first goal for the club by mimicking Erling Haaland’s trademark celebration, while Gabriel taunted the Norwegian striker following Martin Odegaard’s opening goal.

Both appeared direct responses to Haaland’s behaviour in the fiery 2-2 draw between the clubs at the Etihad earlier this season. The 24-year-old celebrated John Stones’s late equaliser in that game by bouncing the ball off Gunners defender Gabriel’s head, and was then involved in altercations with both Arteta and Lewis-Skelly at the full-time whistle.

Haaland’s father, the former footballer Alfie Haaland, responded angrily to a picture of Lewis-Skelly’s celebration on social media, mocking Arsenal’s lack of recent trophy success in comparison to his son’s side.

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“This Team that wins everything. Ehhhhh, not,” he wrote.

Pressed on what those views are, he added: “We have to focus on us and leave anything that happened, it’s part of the game, on the pitch. I have been in football a long time. Whatever happens, just leave it. There’s nothing there to do.”

Arsenal’s victory sees them cut the gap to Liverpool at the top of the Premier League to six points once more and, opens up a nine-point cushion to City in fourth.

He’s been nurtured in the academy, he has it inside him, he feels it and he’s very good at expressing it as well

Mikel Arteta on Myles Lewis-Skelly

Lewis-Skelly’s goal was the second of two goals in six second-half minutes that essentially put the game to bed, coming immediately after Haaland’s header had levelled the contest at 1-1.

The 18-year-old only made his senior debut in the reverse fixture five months ago but is enjoying an outstanding breakthrough season at his boyhood club.

“I wasn’t expecting it!” Arteta said of his strike. “I was talking today with one of our staff members about that, they he needs to threaten more in the final third in this position.

“He’s been nurtured in the academy, he has it inside him, he feels it and he’s very good at expressing it as well. Some players struggle with that.

“He does it in every action, he does it with his body language, he does it with his facial expression, how he lives the game. With the ball he takes it and he wants to make things happen, he takes risks. He takes initiative and at his age, that’s not easy to see.”