Arsenal may have picked up just one point from their last three Premier League games and tasted defeat in the Champions League in midweek, but Mikel Arteta is insistent that his team is on the right path.
After challenging for the title in back-to-back seasons, Arteta’s side have dropped 12 points just 10 games into the 2024/25 Premier League campaign, as many as they had dropped after 16 games last season.
Ahead of Sunday’s trip to Chelsea, though, the manager insisted Arsenal are ready to fight back, even if defeats are taking a toll.
“Obviously when you don’t win, it affects the mood, it affects the energy, but the positive thing is that there is nobody in this room or outside that wants to win more than I do and that these guys in the dressing room want to do,” Arteta told reporters. “It is impossible.
“So that desire, today I had a meeting with them about it and I can sense it straight away. And what I sense as well is a big belief in how good we are as a team.
“Nobody wants to win more than the people at Arsenal: No, I promise you that. And nobody works harder than me to achieve that. All these guys, nobody.
“Talking (more) maybe, yes, but actually working and making sure that this is going to happen, nobody, I guarantee you that.”
It was fighting talk from the manager, who defended the performance in Wednesday’s defeat to Italian champions Inter Milan, which saw Arsenal fail to score for the third time in six games.
“What we did in Milan, watching it back twice, I haven’t seen any team doing that against them, but you need to turn that into a winning football match because at the end it’s the only thing that anybody is going to judge. Not how superior you are to the opponent, you outrun the opponent, you outperform the opponent and in every single way, it’s about did you score a goal, you didn’t, we have a problem. And the problem has to be resolved by scoring more goals than the opponent, that’s it.”
Arsenal were at least boosted by the return of Martin Odegaard, making his first appearance for the club since August, in midweek, and Arteta insisted turning things around is a matter of fine margins.
“No, we don’t need a reset. We need, in one particular aspect, go from 95 to 100. And I’m not going to tell you what that is.”
The manager went on to say that, due to a strengthening of other sides in the league, he does not believe the bar to win the title will be as high this season as it has been in previous campaigns, providing the team with a little more leeway after a shaky start.
“Like Arsenal, lots of other teams have been inconsistent recently, Man City, apart from Liverpool, maybe any team that haven’t been.
“I think everybody’s been consistently struggling with the level that there is in this league. And in general, in Europe, playing every three days at the level.
“Because the temperature is going up another level, the level is going up another level. And to win, win, win and win, if not, I would put my fingers here that nobody’s going to do 100 points this year. But it will require perfection to keep winning.
“Sometimes (in past seasons) the margins you could sense, feel, were bigger in games. They are not at the moment. I haven’t seen a team being that superior to other teams.”
Things change quickly in football and Arsenal have seen Manchester City in particular shift into gear and put together incredible winning runs to clinch titles.
Already seven points behind league leaders Liverpool and five behind Pep Guardiola’s side, Arteta and his players will need to start winning again quickly and win consistently to keep any hopes of another title challenge alive and well.
What does everyone think he’s referring to when he says go from 95-100?
Duels
Fights?
Sh*t housery?
Goals?
All he wanted to say is that we are performing at 95% and the goals we are not scoring make 5% of total.
Was thinking about that too, and I think it’s probably something tactical like pressing or playing out from the back, because if it was something simpler like the ones you’ve listed he wouldn’t have an issue saying what it is. But it’s something he doesn’t want to give away because it could give an advantage to the opposition.
I think it is in the pressing and committing more to winning the ball back.
Apart from the Milan game, I am yet to see a game this season where Arsenal had control of game. We are always second to every duels.
Did Milan relinquish the ball to us or did we stepped up in our pressing and control of the ball, we shall know on Sunday.
Yeh, we are low on form up front, but despite our losses we haven’t been battered, injuries, send offs, and non penalties has dented our confidence but like Miki says we are Quality, against Inter I thought we were far the better team regardless of the turgid shite the Ally/Fletch commentary we have to endure on TNT every CL game we play, ok we are obviously not at our best recently but the return of our captain is gonna be a game changer, keep the faith, in Miki we trust..
He has often talked about bravery to play out from the back as a specific thing to improve.
Arteta: “The problem has to be resolved by scoring more goals than the opponent”.
Do it in January !
The one issue for me hanging over Arteta has been ability to use his squad and I think our current run of results is a poor inditement of that. It’s a poor reflection on him that players like Jesus and Zinchenko have basically become unplayable after being integral. Obviously injuries might have played their part but I think with better squad management and rotation over the season/ past couple of seasons this drop off would have been avoided. With better rotation of players like Jesus, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Sterling this season and Vieira last it’s quite possible we would have had… Read more »
To his defense, if you want to win every single game to compete with City, it is difficult to use Jesus, Zinchenko and Sterling. But at the same time Arteta insisted with Nketiah until he couldn’t.
The obvious counter argument to that is those 3 all got regular starts in title winning City sides.
You have to be able not only to give your first choice players a rest but also squad players fresh, and he just hasn’t done that to the required level
The obvious counter counter argument is those 3 all had been kicked out of Man City.
After helping them win titles and proving themselves more than capable of contributing.
Yeah 8 years ago mate. They are not the same players anymore.
They’re in the 20’s!
I think as a club we switched course in January 2023 – we smelled blood and switched to a “win now” strategy. That meant less rotation and moving our bench away from high potential development projects (ESR, Lokonga, Vieira etc) to more instant impact guys like Merino and Trossard.
Not only we’d have had more “answers” as you say, i.e. what a deeper and more useful squad, but it would’ve given more rest to many of our top players who have been dropping off like flies due to injuries.
Exactly, the lack of rotation has created a multitude of issues, injuries, lack of freshness in the squad, unprepared out of form squad players, and a lack of variation to our attacking play.
The chicken have come home to roost this season and I’m unconvinced that Jesus, Zinchenko, Sterling, etc aren’t good enough not to get significant minutes against the vast majority of the teams in the league
I think Jesus has still something to offer us and should be playing more. I’ve been a massive critic of Zinchenko because he’s just not up to it playing the inverted left back role. However I just wonder why we didn’t try him in the odegaard role for a game or two, it’s basically what he does for Ukraine. He might have given us some sort of creative spark in the middle of the pitch that we sorely miss when MO is out. As for Sterling…nah, complete waste of time and money bringing him in. He’s basically gone MIA…after Arteta… Read more »
They’ve both been found out as starters, but that’s what happens when you have a predictable first choice 11, teams work you out
If we had rotated more, shown more variation in our play we’d be harder to play against
I wouldn’t say Jesus was found out. I recall he was in good form before the WC and his big knee injury. I think you can basically trace all of his issues back to that. He still has some limits as a CF, mainly size. You can also say his temperament is more of a winger because he doesn’t look to score first. But I’m a big fan of what he gives the team from central areas in particular, both on and off the ball and I think he has a few good years left in him. I wouldn’t renew… Read more »
Jesus needs to be told to play 2/3 touch, simplify his game and stop trying to be a difference maker every time he gets the ball, his form just isn’t there at the moment
100%, we’ve put all our eggs in one basket, counted our chickens before they hatched and let the fox in the hen house, so they went running like chickens who had their heads cut off and now they’ve come home to roost. And some of them ain’t no spring chickens anymore either.
I do think he could involve his squad more. That’s a legitimate criticism. In terms of the value of Gabi and Zin specifically, you have to view them as you should with all players not as a static commodity but as a human with certain attributes and form that fluctuates based on their environment, their fit with their fellow players as well as their physical health and fitness. So guys who might have been really good for Guardiola in 19/20 might look terrible for Arteta in 24/25 because their whole environment has changed and the league itself has changed. The… Read more »
It’s because I value players as humans that I think they need more game time, it’s precisely because they are not robots that our squad players can’t perform when told to like dancing bears.
As for the league moving past Zinchenko physically, I’m not buying it. Would an advocate a starting line up with him, Jorginho, Odegaard, Trossard and Sterling? No, but there’s no reason why he can’t play alongside Gabi, Saliba, White, Partey, Rice and Merino. Unless you’re keeping clean sheets, which we’re not, there’s no justification in my mind that Timber should be starting over Zinchenko
I suspect another reason both he and Jorgi have not played is because with them, we wouldn’t be able to be as aggressive with our high man to man press. Jorginho would be targeted by guys like Rogers, Kudus, Joao Pedro, Kulusevski. Every team has these powerful central dribblers now.
Jorginho played against Spurs didn’t he?
But I’m not having we’ve become a team that lets the opposition dictate our line up, if that is the case no wonder our results have suffered
I suspect another reason both he and Jorgi have not played is because with them, we wouldn’t be able to be as aggressive with our high man to man press. Jorginho would be targeted by guys like Rogers, Kudus, Joao Pedro, Kulusevski. Every team has these powerful central dribblers now. And out wide too. You need size and quickness across the team.
It’s a long season. Nobody looks great atm, not even Liverpool. Evrything is still up for grabs