Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta has admitted that the team has to work on creating and converting their chances when they face Chelsea in the Premier League on Sunday.
Two Premier League heavyweights Chelsea and Arsenal lock horns at Stamford Bridge on Sunday in one of the biggest games of the season. The two sides head into the fixture with contrasting forms, especially recently.
Enzo Maresca’s Blues have picked four points from their last two games, while the Gunners have lost their last two fixtures. The Blues have their tails up after demolishing Armenian club Noah 8-0 in the UEFA Conference League on Saturday, while Arsenal are licking their wounds after a disappointing 1-0 loss to Inter Milan on Wednesday.
Arsenal have failed to score in their last two games, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. In their last two games against Newcastle and Inter Milan, they registered 30 goal attempts, but none found the net.
Gunners boss Mikel Arteta was quite pleased with his lads’ showing against Inter Milan last time out despite their loss, but he admits that to defeat Chelsea, they would have to do better in the final third.
“When you don’t win, it affects the mood and energy but the positive thing is that it is impossible that anyone in this room or outside wants to win more than I do, and these guys in the dressing room want to do,” Arteta said at the pre-match presser.
“Today I had a meeting with them about it and I can sense it straight away. What I sense as well is a big belief about how good we are as a team, and again what we did in Milan watching it back twice, I hadn’t seen my team doing that against them.
“But you need to take that into a winning football match because, in the end, that is the only thing that anybody is going to judge, not how superior you were to the opponent, that you outrun the opponent, you out-performed the opponent in every single way. It is about how they scored a goal and you didn’t. We have a problem, and the problem has to be resolved by scoring more goals than the opponent – that’s it.”
Going into the Chelsea fixture, Arsenal have gotten a big boost, as club captain Martin Odegaard is fit to play. However, they are still sweating over the fitness of Kai Havertz.
A victory for the Gunners would put them back on track in the race for the Premier League title.
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