Mikel Arteta has urged Arsenal’s players not to panic as they aim to get their season back on track against Sporting Lisbon.
The Gunners head into Tuesday’s Champions League quarterfinal, first leg on the back of successive defeats which cast fresh doubts over their ability to win silverware.
Either side of the international break, Arsenal were beaten 2-0 in the Carabao Cup Final by Manchester City and then dumped out of the FA Cup by Championship side Southampton.
They have never won the Champions League but hold a nine-point advantage at the top of the Premier League as they aim to end a 22-year wait to win that competition.
Asked whether he had to guard against any panic creeping into his squad, Arteta said: “I think what you have to be is clear. Instead of panic, understand if that [losing games] happens, why it happened, and bring clarity. And when you analyse that and you accept that, you’ll be better. That’s it, and that’s the thing that we have to do.
“Have some perspective on how difficult it is what we have done up to now. Then, feel that pain, feel that emotion and use it to be better and to improve. We were very clear in what happened, 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.
“That’s the thing that we need to defend in the strongest possible way because that’s the reason why we are where we are today.
“So, [we are] hungrier than ever, very excited and very, very motivated for tomorrow’s game.”
Arteta confirmed Gabriel Magalhães, Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard would all be available to face Sporting but Bukayo Saka and Jurriën Timber did not travel with the group and remain in London, hopeful of featuring in Saturday’s league game at home to Bournemouth.
Before flying to Lisbon, Arsenal’s training session earlier on Monday featured an unusual drill in which players in groups of four held a ball between their heads while moving across the pitch. They then completed another task in which the players held pens between each other’s fingertips, again as they moved collectively with a ball.
“A training session has to have different elements and it has to be related to the messages that we sent and the compromises and commitments that we’ve done between us,” Arteta said, when asked about those drills.
“I try to have all those messages and commitments as much as possible, in as many situations as possible, and training was one of them.”
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Viktor Gyökeres returns to his former club after a €63 million ($74m) summer move from Sporting having last week fired Sweden to this summer’s World Cup finals.
“Those are experiences that you put in your veins, I would say,” Arteta said.
“And it doesn’t get much better than putting your country into a World Cup with a goal that you scored. So that’s still there, and that’s going to be there for the rest of his career, like all the moments that he’s here, the moments that he’s creating for us.
“That’s the story that he’s creating, and hopefully tomorrow he’s going to show another very good side of himself.”
Gyökeres scored 97 goals in 102 games for Sporting but forced through a move to Arsenal, which could lead to a mixed reception upon his return to Estadio Jose Alvalade.
But Arteta said: “I think he’s very excited. He’s full of gratitude for his time here. The way he talks about the club, the players, the staff, everybody around the club. The experience that he had, how important that part of his journey in Sporting has been.
“And now it’s Arsenal, he’s in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, he’s never played at this level in the competition.”
