ARSENAL manager Mikel Arteta is confident his side will end their losing run and advance past Sporting Lisbon into the UEFA Champions League semi-finals.
The two sides meet in the first leg of the quarter-finals in Lisbon tomorrow night.
The Gunners have had a brilliant campaign so far, but lost their last two matches — the Carabao Cup final to Manchester City and an FA Cup quarter-final to second-tier Southampton.
From chasing an unprecedented quadruple, Arteta’s English Premier League leaders are now in pursuit of the domestic championship and Champions League double.
Arsenal have been tagged as the ‘nearly men’ under Arteta with three successive second-placed finishes in the Premier League in the last three seasons.
But the Gunners have played a ruthless style of football this season, which has seen them establish a nine-point lead in the Premier League, reach the final of one cup competition and, depending what happens in two legs against Sporting, at least the quarter-final stage of the two other cup campaigns they began.
Their style of play has been questioned at times but now it is the team’s mentality that is coming under the spotlight.
The Gunners have been so impressive this season that their defeats by City and Saints are the first time they have lost successive matches this campaign, while the loss on the south coast was just the fifth of the season.
But, with the Champions League and Premier League the top prizes for the Gunners, this is where Arteta needs to show the pain of coming so close in precious campaigns is not going to overwhelm his side as they look to win their first major trophy since 2020.
“Have some perspective about how difficult it is what we have done until now,” said Arteta, when asked how he and the team prevent a longer run of defeats.
“Feel the pain, feel the emotion and use it to be better and improve.”
The Spaniard said his team are “very clear” why they lost to Southampton and believes they did not deserve to beaten.
“This is football and we got punished for things that are related to our identity,” he said. “These are things we need to defend in the strongest possible way.”
The Gunners boss said Arsenal are “hungrier than ever” and that the defeats do not change the importance of the last-eight match against Sporting.
“If we had won the game, this is the quarter-finals of the Champions League, it doesn’t get much better,” he added.
“We worked so hard throughout the season to be at this stage in the competition. We are going to play an opponent that we know about their records and what they have done.”
With agency report
