THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ARTETA!
‘Thou SHALT celebrate our goals’
MIKEL ARTETA has told the goal-celebration police to “go to church” if they don’t want to witness the “passion and emotion” in football.
And the Arsenal boss insisted he will NOT be telling his Premier League leaders to tone down any post-goal reactions at Fulham this afternoon.
The Gunners were investigated by the FA after staff and subs spilled onto the pitch following their 97th-minute winner over Bournemouth eight days ago.
But Arteta stated that he had no worries that his players were ‘over’ celebrating – and urged them to carry on showing the fans their love of the game.
“If you win in football, you celebrate,” Arteta said. “You want passion and emotion. There is nothing better than scoring goals and winning football matches.
“So, if not, you go to church. For sure, I won’t be telling the players not to celebrate goals at Fulham.”
Arteta (right) made six changes for the 2-2 Europa League draw at Sporting Lisbon on Thursday, with captain Martin Odegaard and Kieran Tierney out due to illness.
“Hopefully, nobody else picks it up and we have a full squad to face Fulham,” he said.
And the Gunners boss left open the chance of Gabriel Jesus making his comeback from December knee surgery after leaving the Brazil striker at home in midweek.
“Let’s see,” added the Spaniard.
“He will have only one more training session, and he really needs to feel confident and ready to go. He has a big say on that. He wasn’t ready to compete in Lisbon.”
Arsenal needed a late strike from Gabriel to beat Fulham 2-1 in August after the Brazilian’s error had let Aleksandar Mitrovic put the visitors 1-0 up.
Marco Silva’s Cottagers have continued to compete, and go into the game with the hope of a top-seven finish and European qualification on the table.
German goalkeeper Bernd Leno has been a key player for Fulham since leaving Arsenal last summer for only £8million, in a search of first-team football.
“I am really happy for Bernd,” added his former boss Arteta.
“He is a really good goalkeeper and we knew that. I am really glad he went somewhere that he is happy and performing.”