Arsenal’s 17-game unbeaten run suggests Unai Emery is doing something right at the Emirates but Sokratis is refusing to let his teammates rest on their laurels.
Having sat out six consecutive Premier League games the centre-back made a winning return to the first team on Sunday as part of a three-man defence that did just enough to protect a 2-1 lead against Bournemouth.
After the game, the 30-year-old was quick to turn his attention to the busy schedule ahead.
“We have confidence [we can get into the top four] but it is not easy,” he told Arsenal.com.
“Next week [against Sp*rs] is very important, it is good that we didn’t lose points because we go full of confidence and we will see.
“Of course we need to improve, of course we would like to put Arsenal in the top teams in the Premier League – we try every day for this.
“It will be difficult against Tottenham. You have a lot of games, everything gets changed – a lot of players. It is difficult but what can I say? For now we are not bad, we are good.
“It will be a very important game – but I don’t think it is a game that can give you the Champions League. For example, if we win against Tottenham and lose some other games, it is the same thing.
“For me, it is very important that in every game we look different, we go for the win in every game and in the end we will see how it is going. But of course Tottenham is a very important game.”
The Greece international also insists that the Gunners, who are currently one point behind fourth-place Chelsea, have not yet hit top stride this season and must keep improving if they are to secure a place in next season’s Champions League.
“We are around 70-80 per cent [of our potential],” added the Greek.
“We need to improve sometimes to not lose the ball or when we have the ball to finish the action and score.
“That is the difference, we need to improve and we know this. We work every day and I am happy that I am part of a team that works very good together.”
A win against Sp*rs next weekend would draw us level with the homeless goblins before we then travel to Manchester United, against whom we’ve won only three times at Old Trafford in the Premier League. Bring it on.
There’s a lot of worry about Mhkitaryans performances.
Rest easy people……. He was exposed to the Old Trafford theatre of emotional dreams under the Twat Jose….. gonna take a while to get the mojo back.
Not likely he will play v 5pur2.
He works hard defensively but he was really poor with the ball yesterday. Misplaced several simple 5-10 yard passes, played balls behind Bellerin and Iwobi while on the break, finishing was poor. If we want to make top four, those things matter over the course of a season.
He had a shit game yesterday but I’m confident he will get better
Hopefully a home crowd and the players fired up will make a difference. Would hate to lose our unbeaten record versus Sp*rs.
Agreed. I am nervous though. We’ve been so slow out of the blocks recently. Spuds will take advantage and will do to us what they did to Chelski if we don’t raise our game.
That said I was equally pessimistic ahead of Liverpool and we did OK there.
Sp*ds have a tough game on Wed against Inter (I think) to stay in the CL. Hopefully, we can come out firing at the beginning of the game on Sunday and catch them in the first half. I don’t even worry about our 2nd halves any more 🙂
Hope Laca is back too!
I don’t think we were anymore more secure with 3 at the back. That said its work in progress. All Cbacks will make mistakes of course. Sokratis could have easily had a penalty call against us with his attempt at Greco-Roman wrestling and had Mike Dean say been in charge. But Holding also misplaced a number of passes one which led to a dangerous attack which fortunately Mustafi managed to clear. We can say Mustafi was rash committing the free kick at the end but at the same time, th Cherries had many players up in the box and the… Read more »
Could be a possibility we may play 3 at the back against Spurts to nullify Kane-Ali-Son-Erikson diamond.
In response to soka saying stuff I will comment stuff.
We all have our opinion on who should play but we can all agree on the fact that Sunday cannot come soon enough! COYG
No denying that sometime down the road we need to beat those ahead of us to gain the top four. Might as well start against these knuckleheads.
Also, would love to see us break our string of not leading at halftime. That would make things a lot more stressful for the homeless team, and we know how they are with stress!
Someone serve them lasagna on Saturday night ???
Homeless goblins…
That’s offensive to homeless people everywhere.
…being compared to Tottenham, I mean.
Bet the goblins are offended too
And sh*t, too, if we’re honest.
Gormless goblins is rather apt ?
Typical Arsecast good banter.
BUT you blokes avoid inconvenient truths.
which is for the Bournemouth goal, we could ABSOLUTELY say Torreira was at fault.
With the clock running down to the half, there was absolutely no need to have the defensive mid in the penalty box.
This is the sort of thing that dare not get mentioned bc the player is popular.
…don’t get me wrong I’m not saying Torreira wasn’t good for the rest of the game but call it like it is please.
James said exactly that, and I made the point he was the furthest man forward!
Leave your facts out of this
bellerin didn,t do himself any favours either, he should have got back a lot quicker than he did
Other thing is on your imaginary sales list, I would not sell BOTH Ramsey and Mhki. And I would not sell Mustafi given the paucity of Cback options you allude to then conveniently discount. His passing completion rate was very good against Bournemouth but the passes were also quality and directed high up to (often) Mhkitaryan which transitions us quickly. This sort of qualitative analysis of course goes out the window because people prefer to find fault. As mentioned, we can pick Mustafi’s concession of a free kick at the end as a poor judgement but had the attacker pulled… Read more »
Dear Sokratis, If we win against Tottenham and lose some other games, it is the NOT same thing as losing to Tottenham. Tell him Per.
*NOT the
Hope Laca is available for the weekend. Coz Auba needs them on the plate which is not gonna happen against – at pains to say this – this solid Sp*rs side.
He was very hurrible. How can an experienced defender always defend from the back of an opponent? We need a good defender to support Holding at the back.
one of his legs = my torso! Bring it on Harry K*N*!!