Gunners boss empathises with Potter mid struggles

Mikel Arteta says he empathises with Graham Potter as he battles to save his job at Stamford Bridge – warning the Chelsea head coach not to let negativity ‘destroy his life’.

The Blues sit 10th in the Premier League after losing to Tottenham on Sunday and are now 26 points a drift of Arte ta’ s table-topping Arsenal.

Potter has won just nine of the 26 games he has managed across all competitions since replacing Thomas Tuchel in September.

The former Brighton boss revealed ahead of the Spurs defeat that he and his children has received death threats.

Potter name-checked his Arsenal counterpart, revealing he had watched the Amazon documentary which was partly filmed during Arteta’s lean run of results.

“Two years into Mikel’s reign he’s close to getting the sack and people are wanting him out and it’s a disaster,” he said. “Now things have changed a little bit – and that’s just the way it is.”

Arteta, whose Gunners currently top the table ahead of tonight’s visit of Everton, had a similar experience when things were not going so well earlier in his tenure.

While the Spaniard rebuffed a question on whether he received death threats, replying: “I prefer not to talk about that,” he did admit he knows what Potter is going through.

“Absolutely,” he replied when asked if he had empathy for the under-fire Potter.

“We are colleagues and we all know the pressure, the demands and the uncertainty that this industry has.

“The fact is the ball has togo into the net and there are many factors that prevent that, that you can not control so of course you empathise because you suffer.

“You can have difficulties in your job and challenges, which we do, especially when you lose, but when you are winning as well because this job is so demanding. But you cannot destroy your life because of that.

"And your family, your friends, your loved ones, doesn’t deserve to have their lives affected in such a negative way because you don’t win a football match.

“So that balance I think in my case was critical, but you need some help because sometimes when you are in that position it is not easy to see .”