Pain is part of football, says Mikel Arteta as Arsenal’s Premier League title hopes fade
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Arsenal face a must-win game when they travel to Nottingham Forest on May 20.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
LONDON – Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal team are barely clinging on to their slim Premier League title hopes when they travel to Nottingham Forest for their penultimate game on Saturday, and they are already prepared to embrace the “pain” and move on to next season.
The Gunners are seeking to bounce back from their 3-0 loss to Brighton & Hove Albion
Defeat at the City Ground on Saturday would mean that Manchester City – who are four points ahead and will have two games in hand when they host Chelsea on Sunday – are crowned champions.
A draw would delay the unavoidable for 24 hours, as City are the favourites to get the one point they need against a struggling Blues side. Even if Arsenal win, City can seal the title by beating Chelsea.
When asked about the pain of losing the chance to win the title after leading the league for 248 days, the Arsenal boss insisted that it was more about learning the lessons to become a better team for next season.
He said on Friday: “I don’t know what pain. It depends what the pain is. There’s a lot of moments to be pleased with what we’ve done.
“Pain is part of football. It has to hurt when you don’t play in the right way. This is what we’re trying to do every single day.
“We have built that core and that foundation. We have to continue to do that because the demands will be even higher next season.”
The Spaniard also said that his team have the calibre to win the Premier League title because they have gone toe to toe with a super team like City.
“We have shown this season. We’re still there, with two games to go we can still be champions against probably the best team in the Premier League,” he added.
Arsenal, who host Wolverhampton Wanderers in their last game of the season, head into Saturday’s match with just two wins from their last seven matches as they ran out of steam.
They also suffered losses in their final away fixture in two of the last three seasons, which on paper does not bode well for the clash against Forest.
However, the Gunners thrashed Steve Cooper’s men 5-0
Arteta also confirmed that both Gabriel Martinelli and Oleksandr Zinchenko are out for the season due to injury.
With a three-point gap to the drop zone, Forest, who have 34 points, will secure their Premier League status for next season if they can match or better the results of 18th-placed Leeds United (31) and 19th-placed Leicester City (30), who take on West Ham United and Newcastle United respectively.
Cooper will be confident after seeing his side beat Brighton and Southampton in their last two home games.
Forest have also scored in each of their last five league matches and have lost just two top-flight games at the City Ground since October.
“There’s a mini-league going on in our part of the table and we want to stay at a minimum where we are now,” said the Forest boss on the relegation battle.
“There’s so much that can happen in the next two games and we’ve got to concentrate on what we can control, concentrate on the present, giving our best every day.”
Dean Henderson, Chris Wood, Giulian Biancone, Neco Williams, Omar Richards, Scott McKenna, Jack Colback and Jonjo Shelvey remain out for the home side.
