Mikel Arteta says upcoming home matches with Crystal Palace and Newcastle will be key in deciding Arsenal’s Premier League fate this season.
Despite being in 11th place, the Gunners, off the back of three consecutive wins in the league, are now just six points adrift of the Champions League places.
While challenging for a top-four place seemed fanciful just before Christmas, it’s now not out of the question.
That said, with a very tough run of fixtures on the horizon, the boss admits it’s vital his players continue to build momentum.
Facing the press on Monday morning, Arteta said: “There’s a lot of games coming up now, some important ones as well.
“We need to get our home form established, we’ve had some issues there and now it’s time to get some wins.
“We’ve got two at home right now that are going to be key for the future of our season in the Premier League and the team is in great spirits. Obviously, after four wins everything looks better and we’re looking forward to the games.”
He added: “We want to keep that consistency and having the belief that we can go into every game having the feeling that we are going to win it.
“The more games we are able to win the better that feeling is going to be. Obviously, to start thinking more about the table in a different direction, if you are able to win these matches your mind starts to look in a much more positive way.”
While it’s important not to underestimate the threat of Crystal Palace and Newcastle, who proved tough opponents in the FA Cup at the weekend, it’s hard not to look ahead to a series of make-or-break games that start with a visit to high-flying Southampton.
In the space of six weeks, we’ll face the Saints, Manchester United, Wolves, Aston Villa, Leeds, Manchester City and Leicester in the league. Chuck in an FA Cup fifth round match and a Europa League double-header with Benfica and you can understand why the boss is so keen to get points on the board.
“I think the next two games are crucial to see the direction that we are taking and to reinforce all the things that we have improved on and the results that we are having recently,” he said. “We will know much more I think after the next two games.”
Smith Rowe gives you wiiins
De bruyne is the Belgian Smith-Rowe
De Bruyne has a Smith Rowe bed sheet.
…and he used to go with his father to watch Rowe play
He’s also got a Smith-Rowe poster on his bedroom wall, and quite the collection of really hard socks stuffed down the side of his bed….
De Bruyne holds doors open for Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris holds doors open for Smith-Rowe.
Smith Rowe can kill two stones with one bird.
Smith Rowe never gets late. It is time that is too early. Teacher raise their hands to ask Smith Rowe questions. Smith Rowe can’t fail an exam- exams fail him.
Top four finish not out of the question? Come on, let’s not get too carried away. We had a pretty disastrous start to the season and although we’ve recovered somewhat in the last four games we are still a long way behind where most of us thought we’d be by now. However, even if we do maintain our good form we will still have to rely upon the teams above us, and there are a lot of those as we know, slipping up to get even an automatic EL place, let alone a CL place! I think that a top… Read more »
I don’t think saying there is an outside chance of top 4 is a failure to manage expectations.
In a situation like we’re in – making a slow recovery from a disastrous start (which had it continued may well have resulted in a different manager being in place now), surely we need to concentrate on continuing this run of relatively good form and just see if that moves us into the top half of the table. Just think about that for a second or two, we’re not in the top half yet – and 50% of the teams above us have a game, or games, in hand over us. Focusing on the “now” rather than thinking about the… Read more »
Plus we will have our regular end-of-season bad form.
Bookies currently give us an 8% chance of top 4 and 22% top 6.
Top 4 is not impossible, but realistically getting an EL spot would be a great outcome from where we are now.
In a season so crazy that Villa beat Liverpool 7-2, I think it’s fair to assume some of the teams above us might slip up now and then. It’s such a fragile thing this momentum. In three more games we could be experiencing another dip in form and confidence and all be despairing once again. But, and it’s a massive but, we are a team in ascendancy and that is a very, very good thing in a league as bi polar as this. Three or four more wins and we will be there or there abouts. How many clubs are… Read more »
It is fair to assume, but the problem is there is still A LOT of teams between us and where we want to be. A couple slipping up is one thing, all of them is a tough ask. Points-wise it’s close; chasing down one team 6 points ahead for a top 4 finish isn’t that hard, but chasing down 7 teams within that 6 point bracket is a lot harder. We have A LOT to do. “It’s time to get some wins”.
Yeah, I’m with you. I think top half is probably realistic with a good chance of automatic Europa.
But you never know… All bets are off this season. Apart from at the bookies. You can still place bets there.
True, but they will also play each other and as of consequence some will lose points. So if we hit a good run we should jump a few position quite rapidly up to 6. The problem will start from there onwards
We’ll see. You’re right about the Villa result, but that’s one result – we’ve had a whole string of bad results from which we’re only now partially recovering. I certainly don’t think it’s a question of despair – more of realism surely. While every club, including Liverpool at Villa of course, has suffered setbacks, we will still need many of those above us to do so in a sustained way and for us to have an equally positive run to get anywhere near a top four finish. That’s highly unlikely to happen – not completely impossible (as I said in… Read more »
Honestly, six points off the CL places isn’t that far from where many people thought we’d be at this point. It’s been an unpredictable season and while I don’t think we should get carried away, stranger things have happened.
Definitely need to win the next two home games before we take on the titans of Southampton, and the giants of Manchester United
Beat manure, the thought of those clowns getting the title is truly horrendous!!!
I’d rather United than those noisy cunts up the Seven Sisters Road.
Them and their ‘Year Ends In One’ bollocks.
If all goes to plan, this merry month of May could bring the following:
Tottenham Hotspur:
60 years without a League title.
37 years without a European trophy.
30 years without an FA Cup
And 13 years without any major trophy at all.
We’re having our worst season for 40 years, but the laughs could still be on them. How Spursy.
If he wants some wins he needs to keep Willian and Pepe far away from the starting 11. He made the mistake of putting them in the starting 11 and they almost gave him a loss against Newcastle.
Yes I agree about Willian. I really cannot understand why fans are so negative about Pepe. Against Newcastle he worked hard and made many positive contributions. He hasn’t been totally consistent but hardly deserves the flack he is getting.
Hard and positive versus match winning performance.
ESR, Tierney Saka and Laca are putting in match winning performances.
If he can turn this season around and qualify for the ECL, then fair play to him.
But he’ll need to utilise ESR and Saka wisely.
And he’s got to stop picking Willian, otherwise we might as well be playing with ten.
Crystal Palace is a tricky opposition. Definitely been our Achilles’ heel in the past.
I think everyone has been our Achilles heel in the past
And yet, Yaya Sanogo has more FA cups than Harry Kane.
Go on Mikel, let’s see the redemption arc come to beautiful fruition with a lovely top 4 finish.
a cheeky third place
For me, this season should be about developing our squad for next season, and in particular getting the Hale End lot to gel together and get more experience under their belts.
Maybe I’m too optimistic, but I think a CL spot next year is very achievable if we get a new striker (or Balogun comes good) and AM in the summer. Maybe Brandt and Edouard.
Leno
Bellerin – Gabriel/Mari – Saliba/Holding -Bellerin
Partey – Xhaka
Saka – ESR/Brandt – Martinelli/Auba
Édouard/Balogun
Seems a pretty strong XI to me! Especially with the youngsters having an extra season of development
Has Tierney changed his name to Bellerin?
Whoops! Yes Tierney obviously, not Bellerin’s clone!
All my comments keep getting held for moderation. Please can this be fixed?
I promise, no filth! Well, not much at least…
“not much at least…” 🤣🤣🤣
I look at that fixture list and right now, I feel pretty positive we can get a good number of points out of that. Feel like they’re all winnable except man city
Can’t say I’m confident about our chances. There’s a lot of games, and once you take 2-4 players out of this team We go from being a club with Europa League aspirations To a club that could easily linger between 11th and 16th, but looking down again, and not up. Palace is a tricky one, hopefully we can take the points The sooner we get to 40 points, the sooner my blood pressure can begin to lower into a much healthier range. There’s not many players in this squad I trust. Hopefully we can keep our keep players fit, then… Read more »
We are beginning to get the makings of a good squad. A few more need to leave and a couple of quality players brought in and things may look decidedly different.
Those who doubted/still doubt the manager, might have to rethink…
Slow climb up the table but a couple more wins will place us in firmer position in top half closer to CL spots.
Crazy how this season has gone with very few teams able to hold consistency.
That said, we need to execute on current spell of games against lesser clubs and build on momentum established.
As said, jury still out till we can go past next couple of games whether we have truly turn corner. Still need to cut out mistakes in defense.