Arteta reveals pain of ‘letting club down’ but now he’s ready to get Gunners firing
ARSENAL manager Mikel Arteta admits he questioned himself every day during a “draining” run of defeats which were “frustrating and painful”.
A 3-1 Boxing Day win over London rivals Chelsea saw the Gunners pick up their first Premier League victory since November 1.
Arteta’s side had taken just two points from the seven previous fixtures before goals from
Alexandre Lacazette, Granit Xhaka and Bukayo Saka proved enough to get them back to winning ways.
Arsenal now have a run of league games that will have been identified internally as winnable fixtures — a trip to Brighton today then away at West Brom, followed by visits from Crystal Palace and Newcastle, but the recent gloom over the Emirates Stadium has not been completely cleared and Arteta spoke about how he was left second-guessing his decisions during their torrid spell of form.
“I question myself every day,” he said. “Since I arrived here, first of all I had to analyse really well what was happening, what we can and cannot do.
“Obviously results-wise in the last few weeks we have all been suffering, I have been suffering. I feel very responsible for that.
“The worst feeling is because I want to do so well for this football club.
“In order to do that we need
to win football matches, to be stable and win some time. When I don’t, I feel like I am letting the club down and the people that work for us and obviously our fans.”
Arteta also admitted to having sleepless nights as he fathomed out a way to halt the alarming slide in performances and results.
The former Arsenal captain is a year into his first managerial role and, despite delivering the FA Cup in August, was starting to feel the pressure given such a barren spell.
“It is draining, it is frustrating and it is painful,” he added.
“At the same time I know we have to fight our way back. In difficult moments is when you see the right people, they give me a lot of encouragement because I see people that are willing to fight with me. It gives me energy every day to carry on doing it.
“It is a 24/7 job. As well a lot of things externally, very challenging. A lot of issues, and then when results hit you like that you can sometimes not find the right reasons to understand why we are losing football matches, when we produce what we produce.
“It is a big headache, but as well it is the beauty of this game, to find ways of doing things in a different way.
“My responsibility is to motivate the players as much as possible, to keep them united, to keep the team spirit alive, even when you are not winning.”