Arteta names 3 Arsenal players who have stunned him in training

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Mikel Arteta displayed an enormous amount of trust in Arsenal duo Mohamed Elneny and Rob Holding last night.

Arsenal were gearing up for a trip to Chelsea in potentially their biggest game of the Premier League season.

Defeat might’ve effectively ended their chances of qualifying for the Champions League, whereas victory would’ve propelled them level on points with fourth-placed Tottenham.

And Arteta’s side did just that, ground out a 4-2 victory at Stamford Bridge – and Elneny and Holding were as solid as anything throughout the 90 minutes.

Before starting away to the European champions, the midfielder and centre-back had made the first XI a combined six times in the Premier League this season.

In other words, rust was possible, but Elneny and Holding played like they had been starting games for the Spanish manager all season long.

And Arteta paid tribute to them after the game, claiming that the pair – and Nicolas Pepe – stood out in training after the weekend defeat by Southampton last time around.

He told Arsenal.com: “I’ve said it many times, it’s the way that they train. If you see the training session that we had on Sunday after the defeat, if you see Mo Elneny, Rob Holding, Nicolas Pepe, how they trained – I think it’s the reason why we won.”

At the moment, the trip to Tottenham Hotspur on May 12 is looking absolutely massive.

And hopefully for the neutrals both North London outfits are still on the same number of points by the time that derby comes along.

Arsenal had lost their last three Premier League encounters prior to winning 4-2 last night.

There’s a hidden resolve about Arteta’s team, examplified by Holding and Elneny’s surprise performances and Spurs fans will be more worried about the Gunners now than they were before kick off at Stamford Bridge.