Mikel Arteta says Arsenal are nowhere near their peak and that he has still not implemented all of the ideas he hopes will turn them into a long-term force at the top.
Arsenal must beat Brighton at home on Sunday to keep the heat on the leaders Manchester City, who are a point clear in first place and have played one game fewer. City will have faced a rejuvenated Everton by the time Arteta’s players walk out at the Emirates, potentially enlivening the title race if points have been dropped, but Arteta believes his team have a long way to go however the next fortnight pans out.
“We are still very, very far,” Arteta said when asked whether Arsenal were close to fulfilling his vision. “We can be much, much, much better at a lot of things still. Huge margins. We can be much better in our buildup, attacking man-to-man situations, attacking open spaces, defending deep, set pieces. We have huge margins to do in terms of game management, a lot of things we can still do much better.
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“It’s a lot of things we have to see for improvement because we don’t have a single player who has reached his peak; not one. And when that happens we as coaches have to understand: what can we do to get them better?”
Arteta replied “Yeah” to the suggestion his players were not yet ready to execute all the plans he would like to put in place. “There are [times] to put the players in those moments and now is not the moment to do that, in my opinion,” he said.
Arsenal recovered from what may well prove a decisive defeat at City with convincing wins over Chelsea and, impressively, Newcastle. They are over the mini-slump that brought them three points from four games. “I like what I see from the team right now,” Arteta said. “I think the energy is good, the mood is good, the confidence is good, the relationships are back, players are getting in form again and you can sense that in training.”
Injuries continue to blight Arsenal’s run-in, though, with Oleksandr Zinchenko the latest player whose season appears to be over. The Ukrainian has a calf injury, having had problems in that area earlier in the season, and although Arteta was tight-lipped over his availability the prospects of a quick return look slim. William Saliba and Takehiro Tomiyasu remain absent; Jakub Kiwior, who has impressed in the past two matches, will retain his place at centre-back.