Two defeats, two weeks apart and in two different competitions, have sharpened the picture for Arsenal. From here on out, it’s a two-front fight.
After opening up a nine-point lead at the top of the Premier League and easing past Bayer Leverkusen in Europe, the reality check delivered by losses to Manchester City in the League Cup final and Southampton in the FA Cup quarter-finals has been bruising. Mikel Arteta, however, insists ‘perspective’ is needed.
[Facing the media ahead of tomorrow night’s trip to Sporting Lisbon](https://www.arsenal.com/news/every-word-artetas-pre-sporting-presser-0), the manager struck a tone somewhere between calm and defiant. The belief in his players has not wavered, and neither, he says, has their hunger to bring an end to a six-year wait for a trophy.
“Have some perspective, how difficult it is, what we’ve done up to now. And then feel that pain, feel that emotion, and use it to be better and to improve.
“We were very clear in what happened \[against Southampton\], the reason why it happened, watching the game two times. We didn’t deserve to lose that match, but this is football, and we get punished for things that are related to our identity, and that’s the things that we need to defend in the strongest possible way, because that’s the reason that we are where we are today.”
Asked what has given him encouragement in the aftermath, Arteta pointed to the reaction behind the scenes.
“A lot of things. The way they communicate, the way they express their feelings, the conversation that obviously we had after that match.
“I know what it means to them, and I know how much they want it, and it’s now the moment to show it, and we have to do it on that green tomorrow at the highest level.”
Of course, this is where the outside noise creeps in. Arsenal have been here before, close enough to taste it, only for things to slip away. It means a couple of poor results can quickly stir up old anxieties. You can feel it in the discourse, the sense that history might be circling again.
Arteta, though, is unmoved. Or at least, he says all the right things about being unmoved.
“That’s football, from the first game of the season, there’s going to be questions: what about Arsenal this season?
“It’s been like this for the last nine months, and that’s going to continue; that’s never going to change when you play at this level for this club. There’s always going to be a question mark, and that’s it.
“You have to live the present, you have to deliver it every day. You cannot pick the games, you cannot pick the moments or the actions; it’s every action, every game, every moment.
“That’s the standard that we set, and that’s part of identity, and it’s part of this football club.”
When it was put to him that his side might be showing signs of panic under pressure, he pushed back, framing it instead as a question of clarity.
“I think what we have to be is clear. Instead of panic, understand if that happens, why it happened and bring clarity and when you analyse that, and you accept that, be better. That’s it. And that’s the thing that we have to do.”
He returned again to the idea of mindset, of how moments like this should be approached rather than feared.
“I think when you have the opportunity that we have, that has to be taken through excitement, through preparing yourself in the best possible way to focus on the present and the things that we have to do.
“And especially in our identity, very clear what is taking us on the way to where we are. That’s where we have to focus.”
The message is clear enough. Feel the pain, learn from it, then get on with it. The season, for better or worse, is going to be decided in the weeks ahead.