Mikel Arteta says he’s learned a lot about the Arsenal squad from their recent setbacks, and he believes they deserve some success now.
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Less than three weeks ago, Arsenal were still in contention to win all four trophies on offer to them this season. But after a defeat in the League Cup final and a shock FA Cup quarter-final elimination by Southampton, the Gunners have been forced to focus on just two competitions.
Things really could have started to fall apart if Mikel Arteta’s side had returned to Champions League action with a defeat to Sporting CP on Tuesday night, but a late Kai Havertz winner ensured the team will take an advantage into the quarter-final second leg.
Reflecting on Arsenal’s two defeats and the win to get things back on track, Arteta said he’d used the period to get the measure of his players and staff.
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“When you have a difficult period, I think the best thing that you can do instead of talk a lot is observe,” Arteta said. “Look around you and see how people react. How they talk, how they look at you, how they judge you, what they do, do they look at themselves, do they start to criticise other people?
“Look around and you’re going to learn the environment and the people that you have around you. And I cannot be prouder to work in a club with people that the only thing they could do is ask, ‘what else can I do to help?’
“When you have people like this, I don’t know if it’s going to take another week or two, but something good will happen at the end because we deserve it.”
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Arsenal certainly have no guarantees of trophies this season. Even if they can overcome Sporting CP in the quarter-final second leg next week, the Gunners will still have to take on FC Barcelona or Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals, then face one of the many top teams on the other side of the bracket in the final.
The Gunners have a stronger position in the Premier League, sitting nine points ahead of Manchester City. But City have a game at home to Arsenal and a game in hand to potentially slash that gap to just three points – assuming they win both matches.
That’s certainly a much less impressive lead to take into the final batch of matches, so Arsenal can’t afford further slip-ups.
