LONDON, April 14 — Mikel Arteta has warned Arsenal that fatigue is no excuse for their damaging stumble as he urged his side to hit back by finishing off Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League quarter-final second leg.
Chasing a second successive appearance in the semi-finals of Europe’s elite club competition, Arsenal host Sporting on Wednesday with a 1-0 lead from last week’s first-leg win in Lisbon.
But the Gunners go into the second leg in the midst of a bout of soul searching after losing three of their last four games in all competitions.
Arsenal’s untimely dip cost them two chances for silverware as Manchester City won 2-0 in the League Cup final and second tier Southampton knocked them out of the FA Cup quarter-finals.
As if that wasn’t frustrating enough for Arteta, Saturday’s shock 2-1 home defeat against Bournemouth has endangered Arsenal’s hopes of winning the Premier League for the first time in 22 years.
Arsenal are just six points ahead of second-placed City, who have a game in hand and host Arteta’s team in a seismic showdown on Sunday.
The importance of this weekend’s clash at the Etihad Stadium leaves Arteta with a selection dilemma for the Sporting game.
Does the Arsenal manager field his strongest line-up to ensure they get back on track by dispatching the Portuguese champions.
Or will he rest key players to keep them fresh for the trip to City in the hope Arsenal’s strength in depth is enough to cope with Sporting.
The fixture will be the north London club’s 54th so far this season, a gruelling schedule that could be taking its toll.
Arsenal have battled injuries all season and many of Arteta’s players looked exhausted against Bournemouth with Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and Jurrien Timber all sidelined.
‘Enjoy the opportunity’
But asked if tiredness was a factor in their recent defeats, Arteta said: “I don’t want to pull on those excuses because we’ve been playing so many games, every three days, and we’re going to have to continue to do that.
“That’s the context and that’s the scenario, and we have to embrace it and especially enjoy the opportunity.
“That’s one of the things that I didn’t see from the team, that level of enjoyment in certain moments and the fight that we have to have to really change the course of the game when it gets difficult.
“We’re going to have different contexts from here to June, and we need to be able to adapt and resolve all of them, if we want to achieve what we want to achieve.”
Viktor Gyokeres was one of the few Arsenal stars to finish the Bournemouth defeat with any credit.
The Sweden striker scored a first-half penalty to take his goal tally for the season to 18 as he shows signs of a life after a slow start to his first campaign with the Gunners.
However, Gyokeres was largely subdued on his return to his former club Sporting in the first-leg.
Arteta must find a way to ensure his physical presence and predatory finishing are influential ingredients in Arsenal’s bid to win the Champions League for the first time.
“We have a lot of important games ahead, and we need to embrace it and to enjoy playing those games,” Gyokeres said.
“It’s a great game to have in a few days, so we just need to recover now, leave this behind and make a very good performance on Wednesday.” — AFP
