The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Head coach wants Gunners to ‘go for it’ against former side in semi-final
Mikel Arteta said he would be “depressed” if he focused too much on Arsenal’s recent record against the top clubs as he prepares for an FA Cup semifinal clash with Manchester City.
The Gunners head coach needs to rewrite recent history if Arsenal are to beat holders City at Wembley this evening.
Pep Guardiola’s side have won the last seven meetings between the two sides – with Arteta part of the coaching staff at the Etihad Stadium during the one-sided run.
Arsenal’s last victory in the fixture was the FA Cup semi-final meeting in 2017 and since then they have lost seven games, shipping 20 goals and scoring just twice.
But, after ending a similarly wretched run against Liverpool by beating the Premier League champions 2-1 on Wednesday night, Arteta is keen not to dwell on past results as he aims to secure a place in the final.
Asked if he was worried by the recent trend against City Arteta, who won two
FA Cups as a player at Arsenal, replied: “Yes.
“But if I look at the trends as well before we played Liverpool, you get depressed.
“What I need now is energy to transmit to my players, belief and it’s the FA Cup – we have a lot of experience here and we have a history related to that. Let’s go for it.
“I want to focus on what we want to do. If I worry too much about them, it’s not the message that I want to send to the players.
“It’s what we are going to do and what we have to do to try to win the game, to give us the best chance to compete against them throughout the 90 minutes and put them under difficulties.
“That is what I will do and that is the game plan we always put against every team.”
While they were arguably lucky to beat Liverpool, with both Arsenal goals in the 2-1 win coming from defensive errors, Arteta wants to use the result to set up another surprise victory this weekend.
He said: “We had a really good reaction after the goal (conceded against Liverpool). It’s not easy because they are such a dominant team, so I’m really pleased with the result that we got.
“They’re going to be very different games and it’s going to happen tomorrow as well, you cannot expect to be dominant for 90 minutes. I don’t want to be defending deep for 90 minutes either.
“There are going to be a lot of little games within that game that we have to play. We’ll have our moments as well and you know how crucial it is in big games and in this competition to make the right decisions.”
Guardiola expects Arsenal to become contenders for the top prizes under his former assistant.
The City boss said: “I expect a terribly tough, tough, tough game, because they have something special already.
“They have team spirit. Mikel has created. From the outside – maybe I’m wrong – but what I see in their games, how they celebrate, how they fight for every single ball, they are creating something special for this club. Everybody fights for each other.”