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Mikel Arteta has asked Arsenal players to behave as “fighters, not victims” as they try to stop a catastrophic Premier League streak that has seen them win just two points from seven games.
Arsenal are hoping for a breather when they host Manchester City in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals on Tuesday night. Arteta believes his top-notch results don’t tell the whole story and, in a long and spontaneous exposition, the Spaniard ripped through a selection of statistics that he believes show they should be winning “many, many football matches.”
When asked how he would react as a player when things went against him, Arteta said negative influences could not be tolerated in what seemed to be a message to his current positions. “I liked looking around, be it the staff, the coaches or the players, and I wanted to see the fighters,” he said. “Usually when [a bad run] It happens that you have two types of people: fighters and victims. You need fighters and you don’t want victims.
“The victims bring excuses, the victims bring negativity and they begin to blame everything that is happening around them or is not going. You need people who fight, people who contribute and people willing to give everything to the club at this time.
Saturday’s 2-1 loss at Everton largely replicated recent setbacks as, like Tottenham and Burnley before them, Everton were largely content to absorb Arsenal’s ineffective possession. But Arteta, seemingly making a pre-planned point given that he had been asked about morale inside his dressing room, said the game’s stats show that Arsenal should be racking up a lot more points and that, to a large extent, they are doing enough. . to win games.
“When you look at the perspective of how we are losing football games and how we are where we are, it’s pretty incredible,” he said. “Last year we won the game against Everton [at home] With a 25% chance of winning, you win 3-2. Last weekend you had a 67% chance of winning any game in Premier League history and a 9% chance of losing, and you lose. Three percent against Burnley and lose, seven percent against Spurs and lose. There is something else apart from acting on the pitch, it is something else that must follow our path and at this moment it is not like that ”.
Arsenal have only scored two goals through a forward in the league since mid-September and have struggled to create chances, but Arteta said that everything short of his shot is enough to change his form. “I’m not interested in possession of the ball, I’m interested in what we do with that ball and how efficient we are,” he said. “Our conversion rate and our quality of finish is what is disappointing us at the moment because with the rest it is what it should be to win many, many football matches.
“It worked there before and we were winning because our finishing quality was through the roof and we were winning those games.”
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s scoring touch, which resurfaced last week in a draw with Southampton, will be absent against City. He was absent from Goodison Park with a calf injury and Arteta said that while the captain felt “more positive yesterday than the previous two days,” he will have a scan later this week to determine when he can return.
