After Saturday’s abject performance against West Ham United, Mikel Arteta said his players had to “feel the pain” of defeat before rallying themselves for Wednesday’s clash at Nottingham Forest.
Since then, Liverpool have beaten Manchester City to stretch their lead at the top of the table to 11 points. If the title felt like a long shot before the weekend, it feels like mission impossible after it.
The problem for Arteta and his injury-hit squad is that with so much of the season remaining, they have to keep pushing the Reds, not just in the hope of a monumental collapse, but knowing a prolonged dip in their own form could cost them Champions League football.
A win at the Forest Ground would ease lingering concerns of the latter and Arteta insists as long as the championship remains mathematically possible, Arsenal will keep pushing. He was also at pains to point out how well his side have done to keep pace with Liverpool over the last three months.
“It was a very disappointing weekend, obviously,” he reflected in his pre-Forest press conference.
“In the previous 15 games, we have won 10 and drawn 5, exactly the same as Liverpool, with exactly the same goal difference, which is plus 23.
“It’s been extremely consistent for the last three and a half months, considering everything that we’ve been through. And we have generated that momentum, and it was that weekend where we have to do what we have to do again, once more, nothing different to the previous 15. And we got that defeat, and on top of that, they win.
“When you are trying to build that momentum and we’re putting so much into it, especially with the circumstances that we have, it was a very hard one to take.
“The reality is there’s so many games to play, and you have to get back to it, and we have the levels and the consistency and the hunger to go again, and that’s what we’re going to do on Wednesday.”
Asked whether he’s frustrated at Liverpool’s advantage, especially having come second to Manchester City in the last two seasons, Arteta continued: “You cannot control that.
“At the end you’re going to have to set a certain amount of numbers to win in this league, and we’re going to have to hit that number if we’re going to have any chance of doing that. But we’re certainly going to continue to try.”
Arsenal’s current injury crisis, exacerbated by a decision not to recruit attacking players in the summer and January windows, is well documented. While the situation has no doubt frustrated the manager, it’s also forced him to find new ways to get more from the options at his disposal.
“It’s been incredibly satisfying to work every day with the players and the coaches and the staff to try to overcome certain situations,” he reflected.
“If somebody tells you at the start of the season by this time you have played five times with a red card over half an hour in each of those games, and you have lost this amount of players, what’s the betting that you are in the middle of the table at least, and you are out of the Champions League?
“That’s not the situation. So that tells you the resilience, the resources, the ambition that the team has, every individual has, and that has been probably my time, one of the proudest moments to work in that sense. The thing is that when you are there you want more, and you want more, and you want more.
“And I’m not going to stop over my dead body, we’ll stop thinking that way and putting everything that we possibly can to increase the probability of us winning and being better than the opponent, and being hitting that performance and those standards constantly, regardless of what happens.”
He added: “The difficulty is higher than three days ago, yes it is higher. But if you want to win the Premier League, you’re going to have to do something special.
If you’re going to have to win this Premier League with the circumstances that we have probably you’ll have to do something that nobody else has done in the history of the Premier League.”
I mean he has to say that, really, but it’s over
Agree it is near as certain over, but if there is one thing we know about Arteta it’s that he is a mentality monster. I’m sure he’s not just saying if for effect, but because he will never allow his team to give up.
Yes, it probably is over. But they need to keep going and not let this season become fall apart. Will be so hard to start next season if this ends badly.
Hopefully they figure something out and start scoring again.
unless Arteta wins PL (or CL, maybe CL semis) this is going to end badly regardless of whether he gives up or not. Second again in the PL behind a team that appointed a new (and relatively unknown) manager after the long tenure of Klopp and with the collapse of Man City is a major disappointment. of course we can still end up 5th and be happy with top 4 and tell ourselves that it is because of injuries, refereeing, board lack of ambition etc. glad to be proved wrong.
In the previous 15 games, we have won 10 and drawn 5, exactly the same as Liverpool, with exactly the same goal difference.
Goal difference of 23, I don’t know where I got that from….
For all the criticism he’s had recently, in my mind the most impactful injury was the time Odegaard was out. We were absolutely shite and had no creativity in the team at all. That’s the period we lost the league. The last few months we’ve been as good as anybody, as Arteta points out, but like last season we went into the turn of the year with too much ground to make up.
The only thing Arteta has done wrong is overplaying our front three. They either need less defensive duties, or more rotation.
He has made seasons exciting again and those calling for his head forget where we came from a few short years ago.
If City hadn’t been spending beyond PSR rules, or Saliba didn’t do his back, there may well have been a title already.
IF..IF..IF.. IF does’t play
Martinelli normally rotates with Trossard so I wouldn’t say he’s been overplayed. Jesus’s injuries and form mean that Havertz was forced to play so many games, and Saka’s back up was originally Sterling.
His mentality is fantastic. Wish the board would think the same way
I was thinking the same. He really focus on what we can control in the moment. Thinking about injuries and players we didn’t buy does help anyone. Just try and get this team going again!
Board support? This squad cost seven hundred million pounds and managed to be beaten soundly over both legs by Newcastle and the worst Man U team in years at home in the FA Cup. Thank goodness for the Hale End lads.
If we beat Forest tomorrow night, I’d be surprised (pleasantly, of course).
Wild West Arteta, I like that
The injuries we’ve had would derail any team’s season, even Liverpool and City. That doesn’t excuse what happened in January or the summer, but it can’t be ignored when judging us this season.
And maybe that, together with the training routine, should be seriously evaluated?
We must keep pushing otherwise our European campaign will suffer, belief will go, heads will drop, keep going remember 1989🙏🤞
After 26 games we were leading that league by 4 points and Norwich was the 2nd, Pool 7 points behind us. No chance this year.