HE’S THE QUIET ACHIEVER
Lack of crowds can help Gunners lift their form on the road says Arteta
MIKEL ARTETA has called for some perspective as the Premier League rumbles back into action tomorrow night.
The Arsenal manager was the first top-flight figure to test positive for coronavirus – a result announced hours after the Gunners’ game against Manchester City had been called off in March.
So it was perhaps appropriate that he should be the first manager to give a pre-match press conference in a different world which will finally see that game taking place behindclosed-doors after a delay of 98 days.
The financial pressure on Arteta to deliver Champions League football has grown immeasurably as a result of the shutdown but he insists football has to resume with proper respect paid to the circumstances.
“You try to adapt and make the most out of it,” he said.
“Don’t try to find any excuses and go for it and enjoy it. I think we have missed football so much we are desperate to get going.
“It’s been a long process. We’ve been through very different stages but now we are really excited, back doing what we want to do.”
Of course, preparing for the restart in just four weeks when Arteta felt he needed six is far from perfect. There have been other obvious restrictions. “One of the things I have learned most is how to use different ways to communicate,” Arteta said.
“Using technology is one of them, but, from my side, it is hard for me to talk to my players and get into them without touching them or seeing them.”
But this brave new world of social distancing – heading into venues and dashing out and dispensing with the away-day overnight stays – might just suit Arsenal.
Because, frankly, their record in more conventional times on their trips to big clubs in the Premier League has been nothing short of woeful.
Arteta was still an injured member of the playing squad the last time Arsenal won away at any of the traditional Big Six sides – a 2-0 victory in the Etihad in January 2015. Five years and 25 unsuccessful attempts have passed since then.
Yet statistics from the rebooted Bundesliga offer a glimmer of hope.
Empty stadiums offer little in the way of home advantage – in fact, behind closed doors, the away team have been more than twice as likely to win as their hosts.
Since the resumption, half of the games have been won by the visitors while the home side have triumphed in only 12 of the 56 games. It is a phenomenon Arteta has been monitoring closely. “I watched some aspects which I think you can take advantage of,” he said.
“But I think you need to experience it.
“When there is no crowd and you can’t feel the energy, that push and the drive, the game is different. The intensity drops a little bit and the physical state of the players is not what it was three months ago.
“We have to take every game the same way, to go there and win the game. We know every stadium is completely different. I have to focus and try to convince my players to focus on what we have to do.
“We cannot control everything that Manchester City do. It’s impossible. It would drive the players mad to try to do that. So I just try to convince them what we can do to beat them, the best plan possible for us to have the best chance to compete for 96 minutes and win it.”