Two defeats in a week may have seriously damaged Arsenal’s hopes of finishing in the top four but Mikel Arteta maintains there are more “twists” yet to come.
The Gunners are currently three points behind fourth-place Sp*rs with a game in hand but know they can’t afford another slip up against Southampton on Saturday, especially with tricky showdowns with Chelsea, Manchester United and West Ham set to follow before the month is out.
“Every game [is important], but obviously when you lose, the next game takes more importance and we know that,” said Arteta ahead of the trip to Saint Mary’s.
Heading into the recent Interlull supporters were optimistic about how the season’s finale was shaping up but dropped points, coupled with the form of our neighbours has taken a serious toll on morale.
Asked if there’s more pressure to secure a place in the Champions League because of the rivalry with Sp*rs, the boss continued:
“I think it’s related to our history and we want to be not fourth, but third, second or first, and that’s what we have to do.
“That’s always within every supporter and anybody who has any connection with the club, so the moment you see the team doing better and having better aspirations, your tendency is to get excited about it and I think that’s the right reaction.”
Thanks to a recent big swing in goal difference and the fact that Sp*rs will host the Gunners in the penultimate week of the season, the bookies currently have Antonio Conte’s men as the more likely side to squeeze in behind Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea.
Arteta played a very straight bat when pressed on who is more in control of their destiny.
“Whoever manages to win more games and play better,” he said.
“There’s going to be some twists still for sure and the pressure and situation is going to keep changing between now and the end of the season. We have to be focused on us and what we have to do.”
He added: “We are trying to change things, but not too many things because there are a lot of things that are working.
“But there are details that are letting down the team – it’s not that we are conceding 15 or 20 shots and getting hammered in games. We are conceding one or two shots, and we are getting penalised, and we haven’t been efficient enough in a lot of things that we should do better.”
If Arsenal weren’t at the races last week, tomorrow’s opponents suffered an even worse ignominy; being turned over 6-0 on home turf to Chelsea. Arteta says both managers will be expecting a reaction.
“I think you’re going to see two teams that are hurting because we are hurting after we lost the last two games, and we want to perform and win,” he said.
“I’m sure that after their home defeat they had they will want to do the same.”
Top 4 is basically gone with the injuries to Tierney and Partey and nothing up top. It will be a fight for the top 6 and I doubt we have the depth to make it. 7-8 is my prediction.
I bet you’re always in the kitchen at parties….
Really, have you watched Man U lately? Arsenal have some hurdles to overcome, but what 6 or 7 teams do you think will finish ahead of them?
I’m still clinging onto the Champions League faith but finishing 7th below West Ham would be disastrous as that could mean Conference League instead of Europa League.
We’re 3 points ahead of them, 2 games in hand.
They’ve 6 games left and still have to play Arsenal, Chelsea, and Man City.
Incidentally our fixture with West Ham is sandwiched between their 2 Europa semis so perhaps expect some hammers rotation as they’ll see winning Europa as the clearer path to Champions League ahead of finishing 4th.
we have to hope Tottenham implode .. I’m not more than 50% confident we’ll make it
Definitely no easy wins ahead… But I feel it’s open to grab 4th still. Our injuries to key players is really bad timing, so hoping Arteta can pull an Easter bunny out the hat tomorrow!
Start Eddie, Laca on the bench please. Please. PLEASE.
I doubt Arteta can. Going by antecedents 😕
Is it realistic? If we weren’t arsenal fans how would you rate Arsenal’s top four likelihood?
Nonexistent. Gone. Evaporated.
And that is the reality.
How many points can we realistically get from the next four games with this broken team?
Soton – 3; Chelsea – 0; United – 1
West Ham – 0.
The top 4 is soooo gone.
I would rate it same as Spurs or Man U…
Some luck needed as usual.
Arteta can talk and try say the right things all the time, but we all know if the players are not up for it then we have no chance. Watching the last game was very hard. For 80 minutes it felt like it was pre-season game and they really didn’t give a sh*t. Not sure how one day every player is up for the match and another game it’s like who the fk are these guys? How on earth did they make it to the Arsenal first team? We need players who are hungry and ready to fight no matter… Read more »
I could be wrong, but I’m willing to bet that being without three key first XI players might just have had something to do with the entire team “not being up for it……”
🙄
These guys are human beings, sometimes things don’t work out like you want it to.
I agree, no team is going to be perfect all the time, but when you can clearly see the lack of effort and ambition from one team then it gets to be a problem. We are not consistent enough. We either play great one game or we go completely missing in others. I think along as the team puts in a shift no matter the result then we can say fair enough the other team was better. Also the decision to stick with Nketia is proving to be costly. He brings nothing to our attack when he comes on. Lokango… Read more »
Yes, they should put in a shift consistently and when we loose we know the opposition was better
Liverpool and Man City guys are human beings too, but I’ve never seen an off day on any match day from these two
Then you haven’t watched enough. As great as they are, they have off days, and they lose or draw to teams they should beat–Man City have dropped19 points so far this season, Liverpool 20.
Maybe ours is too often
Really?
You clearly weren’t watching the footie on New Years Day then.
Because we ripped City a new one – only for the ref and VAR to gift them the points.
And – every now and then – Liverpool go through a spell where they can’t hit a barn door and Klopp resembles a ventriloquist’s dummy trying to explain it away in his pressers.
No one is Invincible – except The Invincibles. 😉
He’s got a good sense of humour
I have just put the ‘Qwaliteee Curse’ on Son and the window licker by transferring them into my Fantasy League. I’ve also made the window licker my captain.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, folks…..
NOW let’s see how those two annoying cunts get on……..😂
Irionically, Emery is now the kind of manager, Arsenal may logically turn to if Arteta is unable to achieve his objectives. Plus, he knows the house.
I doubt his English has improved….
“Good Ebening…..”
if he spoke good English, I’d have him in a heartbeat .. sadly, if he did, he’d probably be out of our league.
If Emery was given the time Arteta is getting maybe,maybe, he would have done well. Just think the players were not playing for Emery and couldn’t wait for him to go. The media were much harsher on him too. The language was definitely a barrier. Similar to Fabio Capello with England. Managers these days get the sack way too fast, so when the media and the players are against you then it’s only uphill from there.
True, very true.
“Was I wrong to do what I did? Yes.” — Granit Chaka, earlier this week in The Player’s Tribune re the captaincy incident.
“Even after all this time, he’s still like, ‘no, I don’t think I was wrong to do that.'” — Tim Stillman, on today’s Arsecast re Xhaka’s lack of contrition for it.
Tim is saying Chaka said literally the opposite of what he said mere days after it appears in print.
This narrative, and the agenda against him, has to stop!
Love Tim but he made some odd comments on the pod. Saka as a midfielder? Can we enjoy what he’s doing in attack before dreaming up some position change? And he said he never saw Saka as a right winger. Really? I know it’s wild to see a quick, dribbly, left footed player play down the right. What a concept! And yea, Xhaka’s comments were positive. Whether or not he’s genuinely sorry almost doesn’t matter. He’s trying to mend fences and deserves the benefit of the doubt, even just for coming out with those comments. His statement softened me up… Read more »
Yeah.
He also reckons Martinelli up front is as bad an idea as Eddie up front. 😂
Each unto their own and all that, but jeez FFS…..🙄
Xhaka said he was wrong about the incident with the crowd, and for the red card he received for grabbing a player by the throat. But he defended his other sendings-off, saying that occasional red cards are the price he must pay for the way he plays, which he said he would not change–that if he had it to do over, he would still make all those challenges.
I’m pretty sure, in context, that’s what Tim Stillman was referring to.
No, you’ve got it wrong. Wrong context. Wrong interpretation. Just laughably lamely wrong.
Arteta doing what he does best: another strawman argument. The supporters were not asking for third, second or first place.
We were pretty pragmatic and going for the fourth place trophy.
I dont understand why Nketiah gets so much game time?