Poor old Mikel Arteta has to stand in front of the media before every game and tell them that Arsenal simply have to win the game.
We did believe that was possible when we played against Burnley, Southampton and maybe Everton, but after just one point from those three games, I don’t think you will find many Gooners even semi-confident that we can get all three points against Frank Lampard’s high-flying Chelsea, but anything can happen in this season’s Premier League!
Arteta was asked by the Independent if he was happy to keep taking the blame and deflecting responsibility from his squad, and he replied: “I have to.
“I will keep doing it when I see that they are really trying, and they are trying to do the best thing. Mistakes, errors, whatever happens, I will support them until the last day.
“This is the way I believe I have to do it. Of course they have to play on the pitch and put in the performances.
“We are here to help them as much as possible, and we have to accept that at the moment it’s nowhere near enough.
“The best medicine when you are in this situation is to win a football match. Every defeat is another hurting moment, another moment of disappointment, another moment you have to lift yourself up and that’s what we’ve got to do.
“I think the medicine for all of us would be to come here against Chelsea, beat them and then move from there. It’s exactly what we all need.”
We all know that it would be great if we could win the derby, but Mikel is under no illusions about the opposition. “Obviously, Chelsea always have a great squad of great players,” he said.
“The team that we faced a few months ago was a top one. In this moment, you’re probably talking about the strongest squad in the Premier League.
“They’re doing a really good job, Frank (Lampard) is doing a really good job.
“He’s got a team full of belief and confidence, and even though they had some defeats it’s a team that is going to be fighting for the top spot in the league for sure.”
Let us all hope that we can put a dent in Chelsea’s title hopes today, but for a change I don’t think we will be surprised if Arsenal lose yet again…
Darren N
We are going to beat Chelsea with nketia and willock lol.
Funny apprentice.
Depends on team formation arteta picks. , Lampard pointed it spot on, we have a set of players to beat or cause trouble to any team, we all know that.