“I love it” – Arteta strikes upbeat note despite Arsenal travails

Mikel Arteta insists he’s enjoying the current campaign despite its challenges, emphasising that Arsenal are still competing for silverware on four fronts.

Five months into the season, the Gunners’ fanbase has had plenty of reasons to doubt the club’s title hopes, with injuries, red cards, questionable refereeing decisions, and even the fixture schedule causing frustration.

However, ahead of a potentially season-defining run of seven games, starting with tomorrow’s Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg clash with Newcastle, the manager remains upbeat.

“I love it,” said Arteta in response to a question about enjoying his work.

“We are in all the competitions; we are where we want to be in most of them. Obviously, in the league for a lot of circumstances, we are not where we want to be which is top, I understand that.

“That willingness to be better every single day to try to improve and not look for excuses because in anything that you do, you look for excuses, you are going to find them.

“These are challenges, these are situations that we are facing, and we are trying to do the very best to overcome them and still be a really good team.”

While Arteta confirmed that Ethan Nwaneri is the latest player to be sidelined by injury – the England under-21 international is facing ‘a few weeks’ on the sideline – and that today’s training session required “seven or eight players” to make up the numbers, he was quick to praise the attitude of the squad and their collective willingness to plug the gaps springing up all over the place.

“We discussed the situation and the fact that we have to use players in positions that they probably haven’t played in before,” said Arteta.

“We are learning a lot from that and what I learn especially is the willingness of the team; you speak to any individual and ask him to play anywhere on the field and they say: ‘I’m there’. That’s great as well to learn from your players.”

Last January, Arsenal only played three matches and squeezed in a revitalising warm-weather training camp in Dubai. This time around, they are playing every three days after an expanded Champions League format put paid to any pre-planned winter break.

“Certainly it would have helped every team and especially the players because we’re putting more games on them on the back of two seasons that have been really high in terms of numbers,” noted Arteta.

“We knew from the start that if you are in every competition you’re not going to have that break, and that’s how we’ve prepared as well.”

Having not won a trophy since the 2020 FA Cup – played out in front of empty Wembley terraces as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic – the prospect of a proper final at the home of English football is not to be sniffed at.

“We’re very excited to play the game in front of our crowd,” he said.

“A semi-final, an opportunity to earn the right to be in a final and that starts tomorrow with two legs. Obviously, they’re going to be two long games against a very competitive team, we know that, but very excited and we need a big, big atmosphere in our stadium.

In the past Arteta has expressed an appreciation for the noise created by Anfield and St James’ Park on big nights. All the same, he knows which arena he loves the most.

“I admire the Emirates the most – 100%. The way we can feel at the Emirates with our people is incredible and I’m very positive that tomorrow we’re going to create a big one against really good opposition in the semi-final of the cup that we want to win, so let’s go for it.”