4 wins, 2 draws and 8 losses later, Mikel Arteta and his heavily-besotted Arsenal side have found themselves squatting in the lower echelons of the Premier League table after a horrendous run of form.
The Spaniard has seen the writing on the walls that Arsenal are facing the toughest time in the club’s long history with a possible tough fight to avoid relegation. And the under-pressure Gunners boss admits that even going all the way in the Carabao Cup would not be enough to save their wretched season.
With only four points separating Arsenal from the bottom three, Arteta admits they need to “be careful” to avoid a full-blown relegation battle.
A heart-to-heart with Arsenal life president Ken Friar, who began working for the club in 1950, has further enlightened Arteta on the size of the task he is facing, having had to cope with everything coming in a deluge – from the Coronavirus pandemic and lockdown, staff lay-offs, an alarming dip in form, red cards issued like a flurry from a magician’s deft hands, and some serious unrest within the squad.
Arteta said: “Ken Friar has been here longer than anybody, 70 years. And he said:
‘Mikel. Believe me. It’s the most challenging and difficult year in Arsenal history.’
“I can take a lot of positives from things that we have changed, from two trophies won.
“The results now in the Premier League are taking a lot of the gloss off the things that we have done, for sure, and we have to accept that.
“But we cannot deny there is a negativity around the team. When you are in this position and we have the points that we have at the moment, you have to look and be careful.
“Last year when I came in, we were in a very similar position and the same talk was around the place. It’s normal.
“We have to start picking up points and forget about it and start to look much further up the table.
“I think it is confidence-related. Sometimes those are moments you have to go through and it is difficult to explain.
“But what has been sustaining the team in the last two seasons as well is that our conversion rate and expected goals was much higher than it was supposed to be.
“Now it is much lower. So that is a big gap and a lot of points in the end. We need to completely change that straight away and find ways to score goals.”
Arsenal face Manchester City in the quarter finals of the Carabao Cup tonight. But Arteta admits that even winning the trophy would not gloss their worst start to a season since 1975.
He said: “It’s not enough, isolating one competition. We have to play every competition to try to win. This is an opportunity to be one step closer to a trophy.
“But what we’re doing in the Premier League is nowhere near where we should be.
“We are hurting. We are suffering, because we care about this club. It’s time to fight back and give this club what it deserves.”
Arsenal will again be without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who needs another scan on his calf injury, but welcome back key defender Gabriel from a ban.