Mikel Arteta has been warned Arsenal must improve ahead of Sunday’s crucial Manchester City clash, which could determine whether they end a 22-year Premier League title drought
Arsenal are in worrying form as the dust settles on their Champions League triumph and they prepare for this weekend’s nerve-shredding return to Premier League action.
Mikel Arteta’s side booked their spot in the Champions League semi-finals on Wednesday with a display that was far from convincing, as they clung onto their 1-0 advantage from the opening leg, managing a 0-0 stalemate at home. The showing did little to inspire confidence, with the Portuguese side hitting the woodwork while the Gunners mustered merely one effort on target. And it comes ahead of Sunday’s season-defining league clash against Manchester City.
Second-placed City are in magnificent form and a loss to Pep Guardiola’s outfit, who defeated Arsenal 2-0 in last month’s Carabao Cup final, would narrow the gap at the top to merely three points, with the Citizens also possessing a match in hand. With that in mind, here’s all the latest news from the Emirates Stadium.
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Arsenal legends’ demands
Thierry Henry and Ian Wright have both urged Arsenal to step up their performance ahead of the City showdown this Sunday, reports the Mirror.
The club’s two legendary strikers have been left shocked by the disappointing standard of football they’ve witnessed in recent weeks, fearing the Gunners will fall to City and relinquish their title hopes unless they rapidly discover a remedy before the Etihad encounter.
Wright, particularly, appeared unusually downcast during his appearance on the Stick to Football podcast. He said: “Watching the games, it hurts. There’s a pain that’s hurting me. It’s killing me that I can’t feel it.
“I’ve put so much, invested so much into the manager, the team, the players, everything. And they’ve got to a place again and you are just seeing it falling away, you’re seeing players making mistakes. When you are at the top of the league and you have to beat teams, I’m not seeing anything.
“You’re watching the boys, you’re watching the way we play, which honestly I don’t like but I’m just taking it to get over the line. We’re in a position that we’ve been in three times before.
“Why should I say to people that come up to me, ‘Don’t worry, have faith?’ We haven’t played any kind of football to beat a team in a way where [I can say that]. We can’t get through the nervousness.” Henry, meanwhile, was baffled by Arsenal’s latest showing against Sporting. The Frenchman urged Arteta to demonstrate the same “fire” he recently claimed he possesses by getting his side to perform with vigour and intensity.
“I want to see that fire at the Etihad,” Henry said on CBS Sports. “That’s what I want to see, it’s easy to talk, go there, at Man City, and deliver. I believe in what I see though, I believe in him Arteta, ‘the fire’, but when you talk like that you have to do it then. I didn’t see that tonight.
“We are through, so happy, semi-final, I never won it, but I won the league. Go and win at Man City, I want to see that fire there, I believe Mikel, yes, but show it.”
Zubimendi opens up
Martin Zubimendi has hinted his recent dip in form has been caused by a fitness concern.
The Spaniard, who arrived in a £51million switch from Real Sociedad last summer, has appeared a pale imitation of his usual self in recent months.
While some supporters put that down to the central midfielder’s apparent shortage of belief, he produced a man-of-the-match performance against Sporting, silencing those who had demanded Arteta bench him for the clash. The 27-year-old suggested that featuring while carrying an injury has been behind his underwhelming showings lately.
Zubimendi said: “It’s been tough, both for the team and for me personally. We have games every three days. When you’re injured, you have to recover quickly, and last night against Sporting is proof of that.”
He also addressed rumours linking him to Real Madrid ahead of the summer transfer window, despite having only arrived in north London last summer for £51million.
Madrid had been extremely eager to bring Zubimendi to the Bernabeu last year. Speaking to Cadena Ser Radio, he said: “That has passed. I’m very focused and very happy where I am. It’s not a bad thing [to be linked to Real Madrid].
“When I decided to come here it was to live nights like this one and the ones that are to come. There’s only a few weeks left and every game is going to be do or die, so I’m preparing for the next one.”