Arsenal, fear in their stomach: “Whoever wins on Sunday will be champion”
Video credit: Eurosport
It’s a week Arsenal will remember for a long time. One way or the other. On Wednesday, the Gunners, uncompromising in the Champions League this season (ten wins in eleven matches), will face Sporting CP (1-0 in the first leg) in the hope of securing a place in the last four. Then, four later, they will challenge Manchester City (Sunday, 5:30 p.m.), their runner-up, back at six points, in the Premier League. All this while they have just recorded three defeats in four matches, as many as in the 49 previous matches played this season.
There was, first of all, the League Cup final lost against Manchester City, then the elimination in the FA Cup by a second division team (Southampton) and, finally, the big failure in the Premier League against Bournemouth, Saturday at home. Enough to restart everything in the title race. Highly anticipated at a press conference this Tuesday, in particular to discuss his state of mind, Mikel Arteta was very calm.
It’s April, we have an exceptional opportunity ahead of us
“I have absolutely no fearhe warned. No fear, only fire, that’s what I want to see in players, in people, in myself, because the opportunity is incredible (…) It’s April, we have an exceptional opportunity ahead of us. Let’s face it, let’s go for it and give absolutely everything (…) I’m on fire. I dream a lot. I did so much to be in this position, because I know what this club was like. I have overcome so many obstacles that today I only see beauty. I see opportunities, and I want to succeed for everyone who has been on this journey with us, because they deserve it, because it has been incredible.”
For Arteta, his players are absolutely in the same spirit as him. “We have the opportunity tomorrow to go to the semi-final. We are competing to win the Premier League and we are in a good place after 22 years without doing so. So we know the difficulty, but the beauty of it all is that it is difficult, it is a challenge, and that is why we are so keen to take it on.“, added the Gunners coach, more determined than ever to qualify for the Champions League semi-final.
“What I said is that we are trying to do something in this competition (the Champions League) that has never been achieved in the club’s 140-year history. This is only the second time in our history that we have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League in three years in a row, so we place a lot of value on our current position“, he conceded, with a determined look and a confident voice. For Arsenal, the week of all dangers can begin.
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