‘Halloween hasn’t taken place but, however Mikel Arteta is going through the scariest of ideas’

Halloween hasn’t taken place yet, but Mikel Arteta is facing the scariest of thoughts.

Lose to Liverpool at the Emirates on Sunday and his side are out of the title race. Again.

The clash in north London might be between two of the contenders to be crowned champions at the end of this season. But one more slip from Arteta and his Arsenal team and they will resemble what they have been in the last two seasons – pretenders at best.

The stakes are much bigger for Arteta than they are for Liverpool counterpart Arne Slot. No-one knows better than the Spaniard how astonishing the levels of consistency are that reigning champions Manchester City have set in recent seasons.

To become the kings of English football and dethrone City, you have to finish above Pep Guardiola’s all conquering team. It’s that simple.

Twice in the last four seasons, City have surpassed 90 points in the process of becoming champions, while at the end of the 2022/23 campaign, they finished with 89. Just take a moment to process that.

While Liverpool have also become a huge stumbling block in the path of an Arsenal side in serious danger of being the bridesmaid instead of the bride again.

Slot’s team have lost just one league game all season, a rare blip at home to Nottingham Forest. They have won their last eight games in all competitions, brushed aside Chelsea last weekend and headed into this weekend’s round of games sitting top of the Premier League table.

Arsenal, meanwhile, lost at Bournemouth last time out to find themselves four points adrift of today’s rivals. Should that gap become seven points, then it’s difficult to envisage Arsenal being able to bridge it.

And Arteta and his coaching staff need to stop moaning about getting the short end of the stick when it comes to refereeing decisions. There might well be a heck of a lot of inconsistencies in the officiating. No shock there.

But what has become consistent is Arsenal’s remarkable ability to shoot themselves in the foot. Three red cards (and counting), are hurting Arteta’s side, and the lack of discipline comes from the manager.

William Saliba will be suspended for the visit of Liverpool, leaving the hosts vulnerable. While injuries to Riccardo Calafiori, Martin Odegaard and Jurrien Timber have compounded Arteta’s problems.

Ever defiant, Arteta insists defeat is unthinkable. He said: “We have had very difficult and challenging moment, but I don’t think this is one of them. I never think about losing. I don’t spend one second on the preparation thinking about if we lose it.

“The team have to mentally adapt to that and maintain the belief that even with the team like this, we are still a great team.” Arteta might not think about losing, but if it happens this weekend he will have no choice but to think about how another title race is over for him.

Has a mainstream sport ever done more damage to itself than Rugby League Home internationals used to pack out huge stadiums like Wembley and Old Trafford to the rafters.

I was an excited spectator back in 1994 when Great Britain took down the mighty Australia in front of almost 80,000 fans at Wembley. Jonathan Davies scored one of the sport’s most iconic tries, and the place was literally bouncing.

In that era we got to watch legends like Gary Schofield, Ellery Hanley, Shaun Edwards and Martin Offiah grace the game. Fast forward to 2024 and international Rugby League feels as flat as the proverbial f**t.

This weekend England will host Samoa in front of around 12,000 people at the Brick Community Stadium in Wigan. And it’s safe to assume most of these will actually come from Wigan. The brand isn’t good enough to attract fans from all corners of the country.

And this is the fault of those charged with running rugby league on these shores. But a good place to start might be to revert back to having a Great Britain side instead of just an England one. You don’t have to be a genius to work out ways in which the game can be improved.

The problem is, those responsible for governing Rugby League are not even close to be competent, let alone Einsteins.