Mikel Arteta has said Arsenal are relying on Raheem Sterling to make a contribution to their title challenge and is hoping the former England forward can improve on his disappointing form since joining on loan from Chelsea.
Sterling started only his fourth Premier League game of the season against Leicester last weekend before being replaced by the stand-in striker Mikel Merino, who scored twice. Arteta must decide whether to start the Spain midfielder in attack against West Ham on Saturday or stick with Sterling as Arsenal attempt to cut Liverpool’s lead to five points.
The Arsenal manager would not confirm who would get the nod but backed Sterling not to be affected by criticism.
“Raheem is so experienced, and like many other players, we know that what you did yesterday is not whether it was really good or not,” he said. “That could be relevant to the next game, to the next action. He’s fully focused, he’s trained really well this week and [is] ready to go again.”
Asked whether he felt the 30-year-old could still have a big impact at Arsenal, Arteta said: “Yes and he has to have it because we really need him.” But Arteta was hardly convincing when it was put to him that Sterling, who has scored only one goal, in a Carabao Cup win over Bolton, was lacking confidence.
“Hopefully not, because we try to give him as much as possible, but that’s a question for him,” he said. “But we are all behind him, we are the best for him and it’s going to be really important and we need his best. And we need the players only with that mindset to be here to impact the team.”
Liverpool’s two successive midweek 2-2 draws have given Arsenal a sliver of hope that they are not destined to finish as runners-up for a third season in a row despite injuries to a number of key attacking players. Arteta is hoping that the late win over Leicester has helped to galvanise his squad.
“It’s been very re-energising to say: ‘OK, let’s see if we can do that together again and whatever gaps we have within the team, we’re going to fill them in a different way with different players in different ways,’” he said.
“Losing four front players of that level and the importance of the team, yes you’re scratching your head saying: ‘How are we going to now compensate for this lack of goals, assists, option. Who is going to fill those minutes?’ You start to generate a lot of options; some of them more realistic and some of them thinking in a completely different way. And what re-energised me is the team – the staff, the players – looking at them, that if I tell them to play in any position or do anything then I know they are ready for it.”
Asked whether he would prefer to be chased by Liverpool than be chasing them, he added: “I prefer to depend on me, because when you depend on somebody else there are too many factors. But it feels different, it feels like we can generate the right momentum and a team with these performances is able to convince [themselves] that we can do it, which is a big factor, because suddenly we feel really strong. And that’s probably mentally a point that it can go for us.”
