Mikel Arteta 'rages' at three Arsenal players during Champions League win over Napoli

Mikel Arteta during Arsenal’s win over Napoli (Picture: Getty)

Mikel Arteta was seen ‘raging’ at three of his players during Arsenal’s Champions League win over Napoli.

The Gunners won all eight of their European league phase games last season and made an impressive start to this season’s campaign, beating Napoli 1-0 in Italy.

Arsenal were the better side throughout but it looked as though their wastefulness in front of goal would cost them the three points until in-form Martin Odegaard popped up with a 75th-minute winner.

Arteta was impressed with his team’s performance out in Naples and said his only disappointment was their inability to kill the game off sooner.

‘We fully deserved the three points,’ Arteta told TNT Sports after the game. ‘The performance probably doesn’t reflect the result, the team was superb.

‘We showed quality in a lot of moments to break them down and it was a shame because we missed so many great chances.

‘On any other day the result would be different. We should have done it in a different way because of the amount of chances we created but we got the win in the end.’

Martin Odegaard fired Arsenal past Napoli (Picture: Getty)

On Odegaard’s latest influential performance, Arteta added: ‘Martin is contributing with goals that are impacting results which is what we want from our attacking players.

‘We want them to be decisive and certainly he was again today.’

While Arteta returned to north London a happy man, he was left ‘absolutely raging’ at three of his players as they looked to kill the game off.

Odegaard celebrates Arsenal’s European win (Picture: Getty)

Arsenal wasted a glorious chance to score a second late on and TNT Sports co-commentator Lucy Ward noticed Arteta screaming at Kai Havertz, Noni Madueke and Christos Tzolis to track back as Napoli attempted to counter.

‘Mikel Arteta was absolutely raging on the sidelines that Havertz, Madueke and Tzolis weren’t recovering after that attack,’ she said.

‘It was so interesting. As the Arsenal attack finished, those three all sort of ambled back, and Mikel Arteta ran down the sidelines and shouted at them to recover.’

“We missed so many big chances”Mikel Arteta shares his thoughts after Arsenal’s victory over Napoli 💭🎙️ @DannyJamieson | 📺 Watch live on TNT Sports & HBO Max pic.twitter.com/v559rbRAj0— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) September 9, 2026

Arsenal, who reached the Champions League final last season while lifting the Premier League trophy, have now won all five of their first games of the 2026-27 campaign.

Assessing Arsenal’s performance against Italian giants Napoli, Arteta added: ‘I’m very, very happy.

‘A really tough place to come and a really different environment to play football – a beautiful one, by the way – against a really good team.