Mikel Arteta has rubbished talk of Arsenal challenging for the Premier League this season after they made a fine start to the campaign.
The Gunners won the FA Cup and Community Shield recently and they have started their Premier League campaign with two wins from as many games.
They beat Fulham 3-0 away in their first Premier League and followed that up with another 2-1 win over West Ham the last time out.
The Hammers gave them a tough game, but Arsenal put in the work and Eddie Nketiah came off the bench to score their winning goal late on.
After the game, Arteta spoke on a number of issues including Arsenal’s chances of winning the Premier League this season. The Spaniard has seen his team pick up wins against the likes of Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea recently.
After signing some good players, they have become early contenders for the title, but Arteta thinks that they still have a long way to go. “No, I think we are still very far away from where we want to be,” the Spanish coach admitted via The Express.
“I think if you ask any manager in the Premier League if they are happy with everything [that] is going [on] with their team, it [the answer] probably is ‘no’.
“We had a super-mini pre-season and we’re still adapting some things.
“Some players are still not 100 per cent fit but it’s great to start winning, you have six points already and find ways to win.”
We have done well to make sure of the first six points, but we have bigger challenges ahead…
Absolutely correct and why would he put pressure on himself and the players by saying anything different?
Common sense really.
Arteta just keeps endearing me to him more by the day. I love his realism. He doesn’t get carried away too easily. I hope the club supports him with whatever he needs
It’s a good progress to win against teams we are capable of beating. It’s understandable to lose against the top teams in the country but we should always aim for 3 points against the less capable teams. Losing against the likes of Brighton and Aston Villa (with all due respect to them) should not be a norm.
At the moment, Leicester, Spurs, Leeds, Wolves are more capable of sustaining a title challenge than us…..
Confidence on the ball and in their abilities is what makes them superior to us. This is something that the coach should ideally instill in players.
We have a far superior squad ( talent-wise) to all those teams (Man Utd inclusive) but the number of goalscoring opportunities that those other “small teams” create are immensely more than us.
All comes from instructing players to express themselves on the ball (forward passing, progressive play) – supposedly the work of the coach.
I agree.
My manager!!!
Even if we get Aouar and Partey this month… It would still be too much to expect us to challenge for the EPL.
Having hope is different from having Expectations.
BTW, Man City have pulled out the Koulibaly deal. They’re not interested in paying above 55M for him.
What does that say about Sokratis?
Now we all gotta hope another club get Koulibaly so Napoli can take Sokratis off.
Or should we pay Napoli to take Sokratis off right now?😥😥
Eddie I think Koulibali like Zaha make mistakes by signing a new deal, and I don’t understand why Napoli will think City will pay more than 50million for a 29 years old defender. And on Sokratis we can only pray that someone take him from us along with Chambers Holding Torrera.
Apparently they want to offer Koulibaly to Man Utd too…. But The Athletic this morning said United ain’t prioritising CB for now.
I swear we have just 2 weaks left and things don’t seem to be moving regarding outgoing players
Or pray WWE come in for him 😂😂
That is a bummer, Eddiè… still time for a domino effect 🙏
Also Rob Holding
If we don’t strengthen with the addition of Partey and Aouar, even top-four will be a tough ask .
Watching us against West Ham was such an ordeal.
There is so much lack of creativity in the team. We are not creating chances.
This PL season is probably the toughest we will see in a while. No team will be a push-over. And with so many games to play, we need a quality squad to stand a top-four chance.
after Westham match only one thing popped in my mind, either have Ozil on bench or buy a proper no 10. Also we need Luiz to start game.
It is our target to be in the top four this season. Determination is the most important thing because if you determine to do a certain thing you must fight in order to get it. Determination comes next after a target.
We have a black hole in the middle of the pitch without a forward passing DM. Xhaka can go to hell. He just kills the team and there is a big reason they are after Partey.
Completely agree 100%.
Sign Aouar and Thomas if u thinks like to challenge for the title!
Arsenal don’t have strong creativity midfielder and defensive midfielder and by the way, Arsenal don’t have enough midfielders too coz look the likes of Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea as well even though Arsenal do beat them; We’re not made up and that’s struggle win!
Arteta is astute. He knows our midfield is not strong enough to make a big EPL challenge. I respect the man. If the Krankies don’t support his need to improve the midfield then we have another wasted season….always a couple of top players short of being a great team. We have supported our defence which makes us all happy….the midfield….maybe I shouldn’t say. Put it this way…… it’s not a dominating midfield….it’s not very creative…..it’s not very good. If we don’t tell the truth we will begin to fantasise which does not help the club at all.
Once again I am sick and tired of naysayers who keep always shifting goal posts about what Arsenal needs! For starters no team anywhere is ever fully equipped to need no reinforcements. There will always be weak spots in every team. What I can’t accept is the trash that Tottenham plays better than Arsenal when they began with a loss against Everton on their own home turf. Our players had a bad day against West Ham which is bound to happen to any team. However we won the game and that is what matters most. It is humanly not possible for any team to dominate each and every game. There will be occasional bad days and lapses. If Liverpool had played the way we did against West Ham and won the game they would have been praised for displaying a mark of champions! When it is Arsenal it is a red light or warning signal about how hopeless our team is. C’mon let’s stop those double standards. Arsenal wili indeed emerge stronger than last season.
Brilliant, David 👌
Arsenal needs quality midfield players. That’s a fact. Our midfield is poor and thats been for over a year. Without Torreira and Guendouzi, the midfield is not good enough.
We need to give our managers a space
To uplift the team
Simply because he doesn’t want unnecessary expectations from the fanbase.
We are very fond of daydreamings
During this pandemic situation every club will try to sell off some players to fix their finances. Arsenal is playing smart by playing the waiting game and player prices to drop in the last 2-3 days of the transfer window. I also doubt Partey or Aourar can bring any instant impact. They were probably only a last 1-2 season success in their respective clubs. Look at Lacatze and Torreira. They were much hyped bit didn’t give consistent performance.
Our midfield could be improved but certainly not by playing Guendouzi.
Any offers for him yet? Wonder why😀
Keep on moving MA, very impressive so far but we have a long way to go.