Arteta pleased with response to tough start, says Arsenal have to adapt to Odegaard absence
Today at 09:49 AM
Mikel Arteta says he’s happy with the way Arsenal have traversed a tricky run of fixtures without key personnel and says his side will continue to adapt to the loss of Martin Odegaard who is expected to be sidelined for another five weeks.
The Gunners’ start to the season looked very daunting when the fixture list confirmed trips to Aston Villa, Sp*rs and Manchester City but having come through those big clashes unscathed, and having earned a creditable draw against Atalanta in the Champions League, it’s clear the manager is encouraged by the way other players have stepped up.
Facing the media ahead of Saturday’s game with Leicester, Arteta reflected: “If you put me in a scenario before the start of the season with the calender that we were given, with the fixtures we had with the three away games that we had and the amount of injuries that we had to deal with and how we got out of that, I’d would be very, very pleased.
“It’s not just with Martin [absent], he’s one of our best players and one that has an impact in many ways, but there were many others as well.
“The team has coped extremely well because we have an exceptional group, a lot of players that are taking a different role in the leadership, in their importance in the team and they embrace that challenge and I’m very happy for that.”
Despite showing impressive resilience – Arsenal are actually on their longest unbeaten run (13 games) since Arteta took over as manager in December 2019 – there has been much criticism about the team’s defence-first attitude in recent matches.
The Gunners produced a pitch-perfect smash-and-grab against Sp*rs thanks to Gabriel’s header, relied on goalkeeper David Raya’s brilliance to dig them out of a hole in Italy, and survived a second-half onslaught at City when down to 10 men.
While attacking fluidity has been lacking without captain Odegaard, there were signs of life in the midweek Carabao Cup 5-1 win over Bolton, albeit with a mix-and-match squad.
With home matches against Leicester, PSG and Southampton next on the agenda, it’ll be interesting to see how they push on.
“We have to adapt to that [odegaard’s absence]. Obviously, the influence Martin had in our attacking phase is enormous and we cannot question that. When you look at every metric, the way we plan the games, the types of things we do to get him in the spaces where he can be dangerous for the opponent, he’s key. It’s all in relation to him, basically.
“We don’t have it so we have to adapt. We have to adapt our way of playing and find other ways to do it that are very efficient, it will be different, it won’t be the same, but hopefully, very efficient as well.”
Asked for his thoughts on the criticism he’s received this week, which included a lot of teeth-gnashing over Arsenal’s perceived use of the ‘dark arts’, Arteta added: “I don't know, but it's honestly part of what we do.
“I don't want to be on YouTube because we've been so silly. I want to be on YouTube because we've done the right thing in May for the right reasons and are lifting what we want to lift and achieve.
“In order to do that, we have to be very efficient with what we do. I didn't predict to play 56 minutes with 10 men and we have to do that and accept sometimes the opponent is better at doing something in the game. That doesn't mean they are better, but they're playing better at doing a specific thing in the game. We are interested to do all the things that can help us to win the game.”
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