Mikel Arteta cut a content figure this afternoon, insisting Arsenal are “exactly where we want to be in every competition” ahead of Sunday’s North London Derby with Tottenham.
The Gunners are five points clear at the top of the Premier League having played a game more than Manchester City – but failed to open up a wider gap after squandering a 2-0 lead at Wolves on Wednesday night to draw 2-2.
Arteta looked distraught afterwards, as did his players, but insisted today the present was “beautiful”.
He said: “What I have seen is a tremendous reaction again. When you lose points with the last kick of the game, in an unpredictable manner, nobody can really understand that. But this is football.
“That was a chapter. In chapter 27, we draw against Wolves. In the next one it is about how we write our own destiny going forward. Life moves on, there’s nothing we can do. It is about what happens next.
“The immediate reaction is tough. It was a shock to the system. We wanted to win and we couldn’t and we have to move on. We have to live in the present. The present is beautiful, we are exactly where we want to be in every competition.”
Arsenal are in the final of the EFL Cup, in which they will play City, the fifth round of the FA Cup and through to the last 16 of the Champions League.
Arteta has not seen Wolves video that mocks Arsenal
There was plenty made of their late slip at Molineux, however, with a video on Wolves’ official social media channels highlighting clips of visiting players going to ground with apparent injuries, enabling the referee to play plenty of injury-time in which the equaliser came.
Arteta said he was unaware of the video and preferred to highlight words of praise from Wolves boss Rob Edwards.
“No [I haven’t seen it],” Arteta said of the video. “What I read is the press conference of Rob [Edwards], the manager, before the game and what he said about us and why he texted me [afterwards]. He thinks that we are the best team in the league by far. I’m much more interested about that than any other thing that I don’t know who posts or whatever, especially because I don’t read it.”
Facing a new boss not unusual for Arsenal – Arteta
Arsenal go to Tottenham at the weekend to face a club now under the stewardship of former Juventus boss Igor Tudor, who has been brought in until the end of the season.
“I think it has happened seven times already to us this season [facing a new manager],” said Arteta. “We will have the capacity to adapt but the main focus is on what we have to do to win.
“We cannot wait to play. We have to show up on Sunday.”
