Arsenal are not happy to settle for second place and still consider themselves in the race to win the Premier League title, according to Mikel Arteta.
The Gunners have stumbled in recent weeks, taking just three points from a possible 12 to surrender the advantage to Manchester City. Arteta’s side threw away two-goal leads to draw with Liverpool and West Ham before being held by Southampton and being thrashed 4-1 by City.
Having been 11 points adrift at one stage, City are now one ahead with a game in hand following their 2-1 win over Fulham on Sunday afternoon. Despite their fate not being in their hands, Arteta is adamant that Arsenal will not give up on their dream ahead of a home match against Chelsea on Tuesday night.
Asked in his pre-match press conference if Arsenal were settling for second place, Arteta replied simply: “No”. After a long pause and a stare he added: “I already mentioned it.”
Earlier on in the press conference, Arteta had gone into detail on the mentality of his team following the damaging defeat by City. “What I like the most is, even achieving that, with six games to go, which I don’t think has happened in more than decade at this club – we’re still not satisfied and we’re still upset and we still want more,” he said.
“We want to be the club that’s consistently with the best, that’s the mentality that we need – and that’s what I love over the last few days.”
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Asked if he was proud of his players, he replied: “Yeah, because we have achieved what is difficult to achieve and we can still achieve the Premier League, because there are five games to go and, still, a lot of things can happen.
"What we have to do is forget about what happened last week, learn from it and move on into the next game, with a full team, at home in a London derby with our people and put things right.
“We are Arsenal Football Club, we have to be here to win every single trophy – these are the demands. The reality of what happened in the last 15 years, that’s not the reality, but the demands have to be there.
“The thing that I like the most: great, we are in the Champions League, but we’re still unsatisfied – that is what we need as a club if we are to move forward as a team and as a club.”
Arsenal will be without William Saliba once again for the match against Chelsea, with Arteta explaining that the defender’s injury had not shown signs of improvement.
He explained that injuries are part of the game and Saliba’s problem had come after similar problems for Gabriel Jesus, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Kieran Tierney, Eddie Nketiah and Emile Smith Rowe.
