SECS DRIVE
Arteta: One small moment can change course of a football club
MIKEL ARTETA put Arsenal’s kings of brinkmanship on standby for more title drama, saying: “You only need a second to change the history of a football club.”
The Gunners face relegation candidates Luton tonight after needing Declan Rice’s header seven minutes into stoppage time to break the Hatters’ hearts at Kenilworth Road four months ago.
And after parking the bus in Sunday’s bore draw at Manchester City, Arteta admitted he was prepared to “leave your ego and your ideology aside and do what you have to do to win the game.”
The Gunners boss celebrated exuberantly after Rice’s last-gasp winner at Kenilworth Road.
But Arsenal may need to test their sense of drama again after collecting nine extra points from five goals scored inside the last six minutes of league games this season.
And Arteta cited the example of Reiss Nelson’s late winning impact from the bench against Bournemouth last season as the boldness required to change the course of history.
Apart from £34million left-back Jurrien Timber, who is close to a comeback after eight months out, Arteta has a full deck of cards at his disposal – and he says they must all be ready to play their hand.
He said: “You have to be prepared to play any (amount of) minutes in any moment and you see any number of moments that make the difference.
“An example was Reiss – when you look at his best moments, he played only a few minutes, he made a huge impact, it was one of the best days of his life as an Arsenal player.
“Sometimes you only need a second to change the history of a football club, it doesn’t matter how many minutes you play. It’s a fact, it’s not something I’ve invented.
“We have good memories of the game at Luton, especially (because of ) how tough it was to win and how difficult they have made it for every team.
“It was really emotional. The way we celebrated tells you the difficulty of the match and how much we had to fight to get the points. We know what we’re facing.”
Arteta has no regrets about his pragmatic approach to Sunday’s stalemate at the Etihad, which left Liverpool in the box seat for the title with nine games to go.
He said: “It can happen – between City and us in the last few games it has been like that when you look at the margins.
“With Liverpool, it has been different. It has been more open, more hectic. Which one do I prefer? The ones I win – I love those ones.
“Against Man City, when you look at the last three years, they have scored in every single match at home.
“It’s very difficult [to shut them out] but we are on it, that is for sure.”
Bukayo Saka, who withdrew from England duty last month and was substituted after 78 minutes against City as a precaution, is expected to be fit.