Mikel Arteta admits Arsenal must ‘recognise’ their weaknesses following the club’s four-game winless run.
Arsenal have been overhauled at the top of the Premier League table following four games without a win, with Wednesday’s 4-1 defeat at Manchester City leaving the Gunners facing an uphill task to win the title this season.
The north Londoners struggled during a difficult evening at the Etihad and Arteta admits it has taken his squad ‘a while’ to get over the comprehensive defeat to their title rivals.
“It took a while to get over what happened at the Etihad,” Arteta told his pre-match press conference ahead of Arsenal’s clash with Chelsea on Tuesday.
“We don’t want to accept that, but we have to recognise the fact that they took the game to a different level. We didn’t reach that level, they were better than us and deserved to win the game.”
Arsenal have exceeded expectations this season to challenge for the Premier League title, but are now a point behind Manchester City having played a game more.
Arteta discussed how his side must react to their recent dip in form and stressed the importance of recognising the team’s weaknesses.
“You have to recognise there is still work to do. We have to be humble, recognise what our weaknesses are and work to be better. But we also have many strengths and there are a lot of things we have done well over the last 10 months I think.
“Now it [the title race] is not in our hands anymore. What is in our hands is to try to win the games we have left and the rest is down to City.”
Arsenal take on a Chelsea team who have endured a difficult season and the Blues have lost five consecutive games in all competitions since Frank Lampard’s return as interim manager. Chelsea are 12th in the Premier League table and Arteta opened up on the test he is expecting from the club’s London rivals this week.
“I have not had to pick up the mood of the players, they keep the fire in the belly for tomorrow. It is very difficult to predict what they [Chelsea] are going to do but we have to prepare to win the game.”
