Mikel Arteta: Arsenal manager vows to ‘fight back’ after ‘most challenging year’ in club’s history

Dan Kilpatrick @Dan_KP21 December 2020

Mikel Arteta has vowed to "fight back" during his second year in charge of Arsenal following "the most challenging" 12 months in the history of the club since his appointment.

Sunday marked Arteta's one-year anniversary as Gunners boss, during which the Spaniard has contended with the impact of the pandemic and overseen their worst start to a season for 46 years.

Tuesday's EFL Cup quarter-final at home to Manchester City offers the Gunners some welcome respite from their dismal Premier League form after eight defeats from their opening 14 matches, leaving Arteta describing talk of a relegation battle as "normal" in the circumstances.

Asked for an assessment of his first year in charge, the Spaniard recounted a conversation with the club's life president and former secretary, Ken Friar, who began working part-time at Arsenal in the 1940s.

"Ken Friar has been at Arsenal for longer than anybody – 70 years – and he said, 'Mikel, this is not one of the most challenging years in Arsenal's history, it is the most challenging and difficult," Arteta said.

"I can take a lot of positives from things that we have done, things that have changed, things that worked, the two trophies we have won.

Arsenal FC via Getty Images

"The results now in the Premier League are taking a lot of the gloss off the things that we have done, for sure, and we have to accept that. 

"There is now a negativity around the team because that is what happens. We cannot deny that. I am enjoying a lot the challenge. I still feel so privileged to be here and I will not change any decision.

"But at the moment we are hurting and we are suffering because we care a lot about this club. We had other ambitions at the start of the season and it is not going our way. 

"It is time to fight back, be together and get this club what it deserves."

Ahead of the clash with City, Arteta called on everyone at the club to be "fighters" rather than "victims" to address their freefall and said he had no thoughts about walking away from the job.

In a hint that he wants to reshape his struggling squad, he said the club would have to get rid of the players who are "dragging them back".

Asked if he has enough "fighters" in the group, Arteta said: "Yes we do, but some of them can doubt in any moment because when you find yourself in this situation you are tempted to go to the other side and start to say ‘Oh, we are scoring own goals, we cannot play with ten men, then we don’t have the crowd and the referee made these decisions’. 

"I’m sorry but we don’t need any of those [types].

"There are people who are very contagious and can transmit a certain level of energy. When you have a lot of them it’s very easy. You always have some on one side, some in the middle and some completely on board. 

"Then you have to drag as many people as you want into your side, to the fighting side. And the ones who are not interested or cannot do it, they have to stay behind because if not they are dragging you back.

"My job is to make the most out of the players we have in this squad," he added. "We know what we want to do [in the January transfer window] and we will try to execute it knowing that the market makes it difficult."

Arteta got the better of his friend and former mentor Pep Guardiola in last season's FA Cup semi-final, with the Gunners going on to win the trophy, and says the Man City boss has been a source of support during Arsenal's troubled start to this term.

"He has been incredibly supportive all of the time," Arteta said. 

"We are always in contact . He is a really important person in my life and him and him and other people who are really close to me have been really supportive and given me a strength and given me a lot of good advice I think."

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