After a rollercoaster match, very much in keeping with the roller coaster month and season that Arsenal are having, Mikel Arteta says his players mustn’t get carried away with the highs and lows but instead must focus on their ultimate ambition; qualifying for the Champions League.
A 3-1 win over Manchester United at Emirates Stadium helped the Gunners temporarily climb above Sp*rs in the Premier League standings but with five games left to go, including a north London derby at White Hart Lane, the race for a top four finish looks like it will go down to the wire.
It’s been a physically and mentally draining few weeks for the manager and his squad who now have a week to recover before facing West Ham at the London Stadium.
Asked if he was worried about Arsenal following defeats to Crystal Palace, Brighton and Southampton, he joked: “I worry even when I win, so imagine.
“After the defeats it was over, it was one, two – the Brighton game – and then especially the second-half against Palace. The Brighton game, and especially the Southampton game, we didn’t deserve to lose.
“Today maybe at some stages you go chance-by-chance, you don’t deserve to win. But this is the game, and we have to be focused in what we do and what we want to do, and don’t get too down or too excited after winning. Because this is about having the balance and understanding who we are, with our strength and of course with our big weaknesses.”
On what will happen in the final five weeks of a long and gruelling campaign, he continued:
“I don’t know. This changes so quickly, but my belief is that we’re going to give it a real go, we can win football matches, but the margins are very small and we have to be very aware of that.
“Winning and losing in this league and where we are today, is defined by the small margins, so everything has to be there to take the game where we want at the end of the 95 minutes.”
Having requested the postponement of the north London derby in January because of a lack of fit and available players, Arsenal knew the broadcasters, hoping both sides would still be challenging for the top four, would hold off rescheduling the fixture as long as possible. It looks increasingly likely that Sky Sports will get the mouthwatering shootout they’ve long wanted.
“It could be a crucial game,” said Arteta. “Let’s see what happens before that, where both teams are, but of course, that head-to-head game is going to be really, really important.”
If anyone wants some entertainment check out Mark Goldbridge on YouTube. The guy’s moaning and hitting things and swearing and can’t believe that United are losing to “this lot”.
Ah, the internet. Once you’ve finished basking in the glory of your victory, you can watch the despair of the opponent fans. Bliss!
Excellent recommendation. I often look for Arseblog equivalents for other sides to see if they have contrasting opinions of a game but that was delicious watching him genuinely think the penalty decision was wrong.
That silence between Nketiah’s goal being ruled out and the penalty being given is genuinely hilarious
Thankyou
Same here, after Sp*rs and Man U defeats, I head over to Yid Army 4 Life and equivalent Man U FB groups
Who is Mark Goldbride?
A archetypal Manc twat by the sound of it.
From now to the end of the season, any of our games is a final.
Pressure is a funny thing though. And saying that automatically piles on tonnes of pressure.
Everyone thinks that teams that have nothing to play for are so much easier. But I’m watching Brentford play really well and they are relaxed and clearly enjoying their football. Sp*rs, on the other hand, look tense and nervous.
I don’t think it always helps to put yourself under high levels of pressure.
I couldn’t bring myself to watch spuds lol Kane is such a vile git!!!
Hmm.
If we want to move upwards we have to be used to perform pressure.
Strange how a team that scored 25 goals in 7 league games, the best forward line in history (if you’re Gary Lineker anyway), Spuds have not had a shot on target in the last two matches. Shame!
Thanks Brentford!
Yea. Five games left. It’s more straightforward now, knowing the job at hand, unlike all those permutations with 10 or more games left
15 points gets us Top 4 in the minimum.
12 points if Spurs lose to Liverpool.
We can do it!
Plus the derby to take into account…
If we beat West Ham and Leeds and Liverpool beat Spurs, then we’ll take a five point lead into the NLD. At least five points. The NLD may not be the decider that everyone’s been bigging up.
In that scenario it would be a decider in that if we win, we guarantee top 4! Imagine that!
Getting a bit ahead of ourselves there though..
11 points will do it if Spuds lose one game
Not if we lose to them.
Slight change of subject, Gabriel Jesus hit 4 for Man City today. If the link is correct it would be a major coup if we signed him in the summer!
No brainer for attainable four under £40m
Those 4 goals have probably just added £10m to his price.
And to add to the joy of the day those lots on the other side of the road drew with Brentford.
Yeah that was the cherry on the cake
Without registering a single shot on target! 😀
For the second game running. Anyone for lasagne?
Brentford are my second favourite team (this week only)
Meanwhile, inspired by Thanos, Edu is busy with his plans to collect all the Gabriels in the world.
Edu could sign Gabriel Byrne to add to The Usual Suspects of Gabriels.
I hear he’s in talk to sign Gabrielle Union for the female team
Dreams can come true…
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣…I love this!
We can do this. COYG!!!
No excuses. We may be young, but we are a real team!
We are going to have to be tighter if we want to go the distance. Lots of luck went our way as well as good performance. Tavares is good going forward but still a liability at Lback at the moment. Which makes you wonder what benefit of upgrade it was deciding he was good enough to replace Kolasinac at current development stage. Again first goal whilst Gabriel needed to get in front and be more aware, Tavares also should have seen the danger from his vantage point The penalty giveaway raising his arm during the corner was asking for it… Read more »
Nobody know how much I hated Scott McTominay last night. 😤
And Fernandes too, for me. How did he not get a red card for that challenge on Tavares? He knew what he was doing, stomping his studs so late like that. Not like he was sliding in and mistimed; he was in full control of his motion. Just look at his face while he was doing it!… Ah, nevermind, I don’t want to subject you to that 😀
Full credit to VAR Jared Gillette, who has previously robbed us at least twice.
Did not give Elanga a pen, did not give pen v Cedric’s obvious hands, yet recommended pen for Saka clattering ….
Tavares hand a clear pen so he could not disallow it … no longer a disgrace to the Aussie Federation tho.
Defence shaky need Tomi and/or/and Holding back.
Cedrics isn’t a pen, it should be, but the laws cover him there.
The elanga one is debatable, through leaning into him tavares falls.
But he also didn’t send off Fernandez so swings and roundabouts
We got lucky on the Xhaka goal too. Nketiah is clearly offside and screening De Gea from the shot. It’s ok though, we were due a few calls after the crap we’ve seen this season.
According to
‘Oracle’ Peter Walton on the box, Lindelof was also in De Gayer’s line of sight, excusing young Eddie being pinged for offside.
Gillette knew that cos he’s the best VAR a man can get. But yeah, we could have lost that 2-3 if sulky bitch Bruno hadn’t f..kd up his pen … a close shave.
The gut-wrenching highs and lows of Arsenal’s 2021/2022 season… drama from the very first game against newly-promoted Brentford ..to the fight for top four going right down to the wire and potentially being decided by a NLD….brought to you by the scriptwriters for the “All Or Nothing” documentary. Seriously though, the producers are either clairvoyant or very lucky.
One last comment on this week from me: if we had the choice of picking two wins only from the last five, I would’ve selected the last two! So, thanks lads.
You cannot ask more of a team
We still have a battle on for 4th, but after Chelsea’s last minute victory over West Ham, it would take a disaster to deny us some form of European football next season.
I know these things are easier said than done – especially when you have guys like Tavares and Cedric on the pitch – but (ahem!) IF we beat West Ham and Leeds, whilst Liverpool win against Spurs at Anfield (1-0 would do nicely although my fantasy of a 12-nil drubbing with hatricks for Salah, Mane, Jota and Alexander Arnold and a tearful Hugo Lloris having to be stretched off having collapsed in a heap of misery picking the ball out of the net for the twelfth time) then we could head to the Toilet Bowl for ‘The Pre Determined Media… Read more »
I like the 12-0 Liverpool win and maybe needing the paddles to bring back Lloris’ heart beat. How about we then pip them to 4th on goal difference? That would be classic schadenfreude. Orrr………they fall back to the Europa Conference League by only winning one or two out of their last 6. That too would be delightful. So many ways to bake a tasty cake, eh?
Your footballing result culinary skills are worthy of top prize on ‘Bake Off’ – which I shall now refer to this particular NLD being.
Or ‘Can’t Cockerel Won’t Cockerel.’