Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta has told his players that there must be “perfection in every ball” against Manchester City if they want to clinch three points against Pep Guardiola’s side.
So far, Arsenal have drawn against Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton in their last three games and will now face title rivals on Wednesday away at the Etihad.
Although City are five points behind the Gunners, they, however, have two outstanding games.
Arteta is convinced his players still possess the psychological strength to win the defending champions in their own home.
“Obviously the belief is there. When I look at how they trained, how they reacted after that, the mood in the dressing room, how they’ve been defending each other in every moment,” Arteta said.
“We really want it and we’re going to show that again tomorrow night. Then you have to deliver in the right moment, the right performance and it has to be perfection because that’s what this last level demands – absolute perfection in every single ball.”
Arsenal has been hit with some injury blow. Granit Xhaka is still a doubt after missing Friday’s 3-3 draw at the Emirates through illness. William Saliba will also miss Arsenal’s next two games.
“There’s not been a real improvement unfortunately on him, so we’re still waiting. We’re still hopeful, but another week has gone by and he hasn’t been able to train with the team. I’ll leave that to the doctors to explain,” he said.
“At the moment we don’t have him. We are preparing the game without him and probably the next game will come too soon as well. We have to go week by week at the moment.”
“In a very natural way. When they came in, because they have been where they have been, after two or three weeks they said, ‘We can win this league’,” Arteta revealed.
“It’s not something we have started to feel or they have tried to transmit the idea, it’s been going on since August. It’s not something you only rely on them now, this process has been going on for a long time.”
“We knew from the beginning that City was the team to beat with Liverpool because of what those teams have done in the past few years. They fully deserve that credit and to be at the top. We wanted to close that gap as much as we could and we’re toe-to-toe with them.
“We knew we had to go to the Etihad, we know that after that we’re going to have five more difficult games. We know it is going to be a massive game. Is it going to define the season? The answer is no.
“If we win tomorrow night we haven’t won, for sure. It would shift the percentage a little bit but five games in this league with the games we still have to play it’s very tricky still.”
“Obviously we are working on their threats and weaknesses, and we know where they are. The issue with a team like City is that it starts with the goalkeeper. He is a threat when the ball is with him. You have to control every single one,” Arteta said.
“Just focus on us. We know what they want to do and will try to do. They can do various things. They play with a box inside, they can can play with a diamond, they can build the game with three, they can be asymmetric on one side, they can play Bernardo on the right and play with a diamond with Walker higher.
“They can do so many things that you have to be adaptable and focus on certain principles to take the game where you want it.”
“When you look at the numbers there’s no comparison with anyone else. He’s able to produce that because the setup is done in the right way for him, the players that they’ve got around him, the way he’s coached, the qualities that he has. There’s a lot of things that have to be in the right way.
“With him they have the capacity to play in different ways, when you play really far from your goal they have the capacity to exploit open spaces and when they’re attacking low blocks they have a different threat because they are a very physical team right now.”
