Soccer

Arsenal squad’s Dubai break could reignite title hopes, says Arteta

Manager confident mid-season trip helped to ‘recharge the batteries’ following successive defeats to West Ham and Fulham at the end of last year

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta during a training session at NAS Sports Complex in Dubai on Tuesday. Photograph: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta during a training session at NAS Sports Complex in Dubai on Tuesday. Photograph: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images
Ed Aarons
Fri Jan 19 2024 - 22:30

Mikel Arteta has compared Arsenal’s disappointing run of results to an onion, and is confident that his side’s “phenomenal” midseason break can reignite their title challenge.

Successive defeats against West Ham and Fulham at the end of last year have seen Arsenal slip down to fourth in the table, with last season’s runners-up having won just one of their last seven matches in all competitions. Arteta’s side face a Crystal Palace team similarly out of form on Saturday after a weeklong break in Dubai that the Arsenal manager believes has helped to “recharge the batteries” of his players after a testing first half of the season.

But while Arteta was positive about Arsenal’s chances of overhauling Liverpool’s five-point gap at the top given that the statistics show they are creating more opportunities than their rivals, the Spaniard admitted that he and his staff have been scratching their heads to find a way of improving the most important stat of all: scoring goals.

“You look at all the data and it is Arsenal, Arsenal, Arsenal at the top, at the top, at the top. The reality is that we haven’t won enough matches,” said Arteta.

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“There is something underneath that, it is like an onion, the first layer, second layer ... we have to go to the bottom of it to understand actually what is making us win or lose. It is the small details, the margins and then the boxes have played a big part of that. We have to change that. As a coach, you think, ‘yeah, do that and that’s what will happen ...’ It’s not. We have to find something else to win.”

The Premier League’s spending restrictions mean that it appears unlikely to come in the transfer market despite Arsenal’s long-term interest in Brentford’s Ivan Toney, who returns from his eight-month ban for gambling on Saturday and is a more realistic target for the summer.

Brentford's Ivan Toney. Photograph: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images
Brentford's Ivan Toney. Photograph: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

It was perhaps telling that Arteta refused to answer when asked which position he could sign a player in if money was no object, insisting that “I love the players that we have”. But the manager did reveal that Arsenal have been taking what he described as a “holistic approach” to improve their finishing, which included allowing the players to bring their families to Dubai to share “togetherness and moments”.

“They are part of us. They live with us,” Arteta said. “Maybe they are not in the building every day but they live our professional lives, our success and failures every day. They need to be recognised. They need to be present and for me it’s part of the best moments that we had. We always try to take a holistic approach and look at every aspect that can be affecting the players in a positive or negative way.”

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Arteta played down interest from West Ham in taking Emile Smith-Rowe on loan and was upbeat about Jurrien Timber’s chances of featuring again this season after the £34 million (€39.6 million) summer signing stepped up his rehabilitation in Dubai following an ACL injury.

“There is a possibility, but at the moment he’s still very far from competing,” he said. “That’s the realistic picture of it. Are we hopeful that he could have a realistic impact before the end of the season? If everything goes well, it looks like that might happen. At the moment, though, it’s too early to make that call.”