FIGHTING CHANCE
Arteta: I love my players showing desire, determination and emotion... this isn’t a Mickey Mouse competition
MIKEL ARTETA has told his Arsenal players to carry on fighting this season – because the Premier League is not Disneyland.
Arteta may have been in a jokey mood yesterday when he tried to laugh off Ben White and Oleksandr Zinchenko’s bust-up.
But he was deadly serious when he insisted things cannot be all sweetness and light if the Gunners want to win the title.
Asked if he approved of his players arguing with each other so publicly, Arteta said: “I love it. As long as it’s in a respectful way and with the intention to be more demanding as a team and it stays there, I’m very happy with that.
“Maybe we have a different understanding of what the word fight means. Maybe it was a conversation. A little bit heated and a little bit emotional after the game when you are going 200 beats a minute. It’s normal. Nothing new.
“I want to see passion and commitment. I want my players to always have the desire to be better and be demanding. If not it’s
Disneyland.”
Arteta revealed that
Thomas Partey has suffered a setback in his recovery from a thigh injury, and admitted losing the injuryprone midfielder was a blow.
He said: “It’s a big concern because he is such an important player for us.
“He was getting some momentum at the start of the season and then we lost him for a while. Now it has been a long time without him.
“He gives us something
different that no other player can give us in the squad so he will be a miss.”
Arteta also admitted he will not just miss Jurgen Klopp as a manager when he exits the Premier League this summer – the Spaniard is also a big fan of Klopp’s touchline flare-ups, and says he will miss those too.
Arteta, criticised himself at times for being too emotional, said: “I personally love what he transmits as a manager. Certainly the passion with the way he uses his arms, his body language but as well his interaction with his players and the chemistry you see there.
It is something very powerful.
“He will be a big loss. He added a new dimension to the Premier League, building a team and transforming his club.”
Arsenal seem to have solved their goalscoring woes recently and Arteta explained their failure to sign a striker this month as him putting faith in what he already has.
Some fans have criticised the Gunners for trying too hard to score the perfect goal.
But Arteta said: “I don’t mind ugly goals. I love ugly goals. I love cheap goals. Let’s have them.
“But I don’t know how to coach that, to tell someone to hit the post, hit it off someone’s head and then it goes in the other direction.”