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.
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.
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.