Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
T W O WEEKS’ NOTICE
Arteta’s fortnight to save season... or risk chop like Lamps
MIKEL ARTETA has warned his Arsenal players they face a season-defining fortnight.
The Gunners take on Leeds today, followed by Benfica, Manchester City, Benfica again and high-flying Leicester before the end of the month.
And manager Arteta wants to see them finally find the sort of consistency which has eluded them throughout the campaign so far.
He said: “It’s going to be crucial. We don’t have any margin now in the league. And in the Europa League, they are knockout games so the moment you don’t do what you have to do you are out.
“First of all we have to improve our position in the Premier League dramatically, and in order to do that we have to win a lot of football matches.
“How many will depend on what the opponents do because at the moment it’s not in our hands. We need to get into Europe, into a really, really close situation where we can compete for a trophy.”
Arsenal have shown a frustrating inconsistency this term, and in domestic games have frequently failed to follow up one win with a second.
Arteta added: “We have talked since the start of the season about what we are lacking – the consistency to do it every three days and keep winning and winning.
“We had a really good patch in the last seven games when we won a lot and drew one and didn’t concede many goals – and then we ended up losing the last two games in an incredible way.
“The margins between winning and losing games are really thin and you cannot afford to make mistakes.”
Arteta replaced Unai Emery in December 2019 and while he made a good start to his career in the Emirates dugout, winning both the FA Cup and Community Shield, his statistics generally compare unfavourably with Emery’s and with the stats of recently sacked Chelsea boss Frank Lampard (left).
That pair each had a win rate of 49 per cent compared with Arteta’s 42 per cent, and both averaged more goals, shots and passes per game than the Gunners boss.
But Arteta, who left his job as No.2 to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City to take charge in north London, is adamant the Gunners are on the right track under him.
“I see how the team is now developing,” the Spaniard said.
“Is it going to take time? Yes, I said it from the first minute.
“Do I see a lot of progress in many areas? Yes.
“The margin for improvement is still enormous but I said that from day one, even when we were winning against big teams and even when we were winning trophies.”
Arsenal’s Europa League fixture against Portuguese giants Benfica will, because of Covid restrictions, take place in Italy (‘away’ leg) and Greece (‘home’ leg).
In the Europa last season the Gunners topped their group but went out at the last-32 stage to Olympiakos, who subsequently lost to Wolves.
This season they won all six group matches but Molde, Rapid Vienna and Dundalk were hardly testing.
Arteta added: “Playing our home match in Greece sounds a little bit crazy but it is what it is and we have to accept it because we all want to play in the competition.
“Right now it is the only way to move forward.”
FOR those of you out there yet to be convinced Jose Mourinho has lost his mojo, here he is on Hugo Lloris.
“My goalkeeper is the best in the Premier League.”
A mere two months on and Lloris cannot stop throwing them in.
It is not often a keeper can lose marks for allowing a penalty to pass him but the Frenchman could have thrown his chapeau on Rodri’s first-half spot-kick.
Instead, it squirted in and put Manchester City on their way to yet another victory.
That is the way it is going for Lloris.
He got a flailing limb to Ilkay Gundogan’s two subsequent
Britain’s best columnist at the Etihad Stadium efforts but was never going to Brazilian tried to claim penaltytaking keep them out. duties and the beaming
It is not as though Gundogan smile after pinging an 80-yard and imperious City need any assist for Gundogan’s second help from the opposing keeper. said it all.
Contrast Lloris and his current But there is far more to plight – don’t forget, he had Ederson’s current performance a night to forget in Tottenham’s levels than flamboyance. FA Cup defeat at Goodison Park He is not taking any undue last Wednesday – with Ederson. risks, he is not showboating, he
The mischievous way the is demonstrating high levels of concentration, considering the limited workload he often has. He is making good plays, such as the late one from Gareth Bale’s rare effort.
And those plus-factors could be applied to every member of this City squad.
In this formidable run of matches, this is a team that has an economy of excellence.
Most of what it does is first-rate, most of what it does seems to be with the minimum of effort.
It is no coincidence they seem to end games full of running.
The stuff Guardiola came out with, explaining how they had benefited from his players moving less, initially came across as hipster bluff, a spot of elite coaching indulgence.
But everyone is now getting what he meant.
Here, they toyed with opposition that Guardiola, over three years ago, labelled the Harry Kane Team.
Soon after, he tried to clarify his comments but there was no need – his description has only become more accurate as time has passed.
And, fleetingly, Kane’s presence looked as though it might prevent this contest from being predictably uneven.
Before Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s clumsy intervention on a Gundogan run had given City their first half penalty, Kane had persuaded a quite wonderful
set-piece effort against an upright and briefly caused a spot of unease amongst City’s confident defensive ranks.
But yet again, this was a Spurs side that never looked like casting off Mourinho’s shackles.
And that must be frustrating for Spurs fans, who see a grim battle for a top-four finish.
It is frustrating because they do look very dangerous on the front foot and there actually is a swashbuckling side waiting to unleash itself again.
They have even got Bale to call on from the bench. His solo attempt was a brief reminder of why he has four Champions League medals and is on over half a million pounds a week.
The problem is that if Spurs and Mourinho had shown too much adventure, they would have been picked off by this marvellous team. That is probably true.
But this run of 16 successive wins across all competitions suggests there is no harm trying to unsettle City with adventure. Most teams have set up to defend in that spell, all have been beaten.
Anyway, an ultra-cautious game-plan demands a reliable keeper and right now, Jose simply does not have one. Whereas Pep, on the other hand, has one who saves and sends goal-scoring passes the length of the field.
And that summed this mismatch up.