Mikel Arteta admits injury-hit Arsenal lack chemistry in attack and has called on his players to raise their game for Wednesday night’s Champions League clash with Sevilla.
Arsenal host the Spanish side looking to bounce back from successive defeats by Newcastle and West Ham on another big European night at Emirates Stadium. The Gunners can seal a place in the knockout stage if they win and PSV Eindhoven are beaten by Lens in the other match in Group B.
Arteta wants to wrap up qualification early so he can rest players for their final two group games, but injuries to forward players are stretching his squad.
Arsenal will be without Gabriel Jesus and Emile Smith Rowe tonight, while Eddie Nketiah and club skipper Martin Odegaard are both major doubts.
Arteta has also had to do without Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard at times, and he admits constant chopping and changing has impacted the cohesion of his frontline.
“It is what it is,” he said. “It changes things, you have to adapt things, the team doesn’t have the same chemistry, players don’t have the same amount of consistency and minutes [under] their belts to find that, and that’s really important.
"But, listen, we have some great players to give us back up and opportunities, and they have shown how good they are.”
Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at St James’ Park saw Arsenal fail to score for the first time this season, and Arteta was fuming after the loss.
Arteta called Anthony Gordon’s winner — which was allowed to stand after three separate VAR checks — an “absolute disgrace” and, in a scathing attack on the standard of officiating in the Premier League, described the decision to allow the goal as “embarrassing”.
The Arsenal manager could face disciplinary action for his outburst after the FA wrote him and the club to seek their observations. But Arteta stood by his comments yesterday and has urged his players to use the pain of their defeat as fuel tonight.
“This is what we have to show, how much we want it,” he said. “You can learn from those situations, and they are two very different games to analyse, so you don’t put one and one together to make it to the next one.
“But learn a lot from them and understand the difficulties of each match, how we have to approach it to play in the way we want and win them.”
Arsenal host Burnley on Saturday before a two-week international break. When domestic football resumes, they then play 10 games in 37 days until the end of the year.
With a hectic schedule on the horizon, Arteta wants to seal qualification to the knockout stage early. “The moment you have a chance to put it to bed, do it,” he said.
