Arsenal face last year’s Premier League champions Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final but manager Mikel Arteta has acknowledged the difficult task. The Gunners come into this game off the back of a grinded-out win against current champions Liverpool. Furthermore, after a win like this, most Gunners fans will come into this game with perhaps a slightly higher sense of optimism.
Defeating the league, European, and World champions only weeks after winning the league is no small feat. However, according to a relay of a recent press statement from Nick Ames of the Guardian, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has an outlook similar to what many fans would really expect once the two teams enter Wembley Stadium.
Mikel Arteta says Arsenal Matching Manchester City is ‘Impossible’ After Break
What Arteta Said
The Gunners manager had much to say to the press midweek. In response to being asked whether his team, post-break, can match Manchester City after the torrential injuries and suspension that have plagued the club, he had much to say.
“No,” he said. “You are asking me if I wanted to play, after a two-month break, like City right now? Look back on the issues we had with a lot of players, with all the injuries, with the suspensions, with players out. It is impossible. I need to adapt, I need to win games, and I need to find ways to do that. My task, my long-term situation, in how we want to play is very clear.”
He carried on to say that the next step in advancing Arsenal as a club is to start with the club’s hierarchy. “There are many different aspects,” he said. “Obviously the financial one, depending on where we finish, is one. Depending on the future of a few players and obviously depending on the transfer market. We don’t know the type of market we are going to find. It is something unique. It never happened and there are a lot of question marks around that.
“We cannot stick to something that maybe is not possible to do, so we have to be flexible and creative, but to have quick ideas of what we need to do and how we are going to do it.”
Transfer Funds Could Rely on Season Finish
Arsenal’s transfer funds for this aforementioned market would be boosted if they could qualify for the Europa League. However, with Arsenal currently sitting in ninth place with just two games of the season remaining, and the City match in the FA Cup, a lot of challenges are presenting themselves as the restart comes to a close.
The Gunners boss also states that what they do in this match dictates their fate for the rest of the season. With this being the game that solidifies their spot at Wembley for the final, and a potential go at Europa League football for yet another season, one cannot write Arteta off for feeling this way. They wish to emulate the creativity of Manchester City.
“[What we can do] will depend a lot on what we do on the pitch in the next three or four games. That is in our hands, so we have to maximise it.”
Arteta has the City clash, followed by the Premier League clashes against Aston Villa and Watford to coach his team for. If they can get six points out of six from those games, as well as getting into the FA Cup final, their chances of Europe will grow to much higher possibilities.
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