Mikel Arteta has said it is “impossible” to not love his players.
**Arsenal**are battling the critics after a 2-2 draw against **Wolves**signalled the fifth time they have dropped points in their last seven Premier League fixtures. **Man City**can cut their lead at the top of the table down to two points with a win against Newcastle United, and fears are growing that the Gunners might stumble to second spot for the fourth year in a row. But Arteta is backing his boys.
“The way [I love the players is through how] I interact with them, the way I communicate with them, uh the way I try to support them and make them feel that um that I'm here, that we are all here.
“It is not that I love them, we love them because it's impossible not to. I mean when you are 10 minutes in that dressing room in and around the building and you interact with them it is impossible not to. Believe me, even if you try hard, I think they will win you.
“But I think when we haven't been at our standards, I take full responsibility for that. In the second half, we weren't our standards, which is normal when we play the amount of games we play as well.
“[Bottling] is not part of my vocabulary, and I don't see it like this because I don't think anybody wants to do that as an intention, but I wouldn't use that word, but that's me.
“That's individual opinion, perspective, and you have to respect that. I mean, that's part I said after the press conference, you lose two points against Wolves in the manner that the game played out, you have to take it in the chin. That's it. It's part of our role.
“After night games, I don't sleep well because of the adrenaline and the timing. But nothing unusual. I try to analyse all the decisions that we made prior to the game, the topics we discuss, the messages that I sent to them, what happened in the very recent past after those messages and then what happened in the second half and try to learn from that to think about what we need now as a team.
“When you're 2-1 up, keep the ball, make 20 passes, play in the final third, control the game, control the tempo, ask them to come and then punish them. That's what you should do.”