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Mikel Arteta is not concerned by Arsenal’s stuttering form and says their attacking output is “going pretty well” ahead of Tuesday night’s Champions League game with Lille.
The Gunners remained within three points of Premier League leaders Manchester City over the weekend with a 2-1 home win over Leeds but it required goals in the final half hour to see them over the line, Riccardo Calafiori and Bruno Guimaraes on target.
For the first 60 minutes, Arsenal were second best with Leeds’ 3-5-2 formation frustrating the hosts and also giving the visitors joy on the counter attack.
But the defending champions found a way to successfully bounce back from the 3-0 hammering at Brighton before the winter break.
Asked whether he felt his side’s attacking flow had diminished in recent games, Arteta said: “I think it is going pretty well. I think the way we have finished the actions is probably something we need to improve, but in terms of what we produced before the international break it was better than any other year.
“Then we had obviously the Brighton game, then the other game [against Leeds] which was a different context as well. But we are getting in good positions and we just need to be more clinical now to finish more actions.”
Even though the performance was a little patchy, the victory over Leeds was another triumph for Arsenal’s strength of character
“We have to be emotionally dominant regardless of what the context is, which is easy to say but actually very difficult to do,” said Arteta. “We did it in the majority of the matches, which is great. We didn’t do it in Brighton and we paid the penalty of that.”
Arteta confirms double injury blow for Arsenal
Saturday’s win was not without its issues, albeit after the game, not during.
In the training session that followed, both Piero Hincapié and Martin Zubimendi sustained injuries that mean they won’t be available against Lille.
Arteta added: “We had a training session planned for after the game for players that did not have enough minutes, and in two very unfortunate actions we lost two players. Not great.
“We need to assess them today and have further scans to see where they are then we will have a timeframe on how long they are going to be out for.
‘If they never train then they don’t get injured, but the consequence to that is when they are needed to play they have no rhythm and when you ask them to play they are going to have no impact in the game.
“That could happen at the Emirates – it never happened in seven years that I have been here. It could happen the next day in the training session. That has happened before and hopefully it doesn’t happen again.
“What can you do? If I had a crystal ball I would just say ‘guys, get in the Jacuzzi and I will see you tomorrow’.”
Arteta praises Eze despite being Arsenal’s forgotten man
Zubimendi’s injury may move Eberechi Eze up the pecking order with the England international not getting off the bench at the weekend. Eze has yet to start a league game this season but Arteta says his attitude has been “phenomenal”.
“Like everybody else I think they need to earn the right to play,” said the Spaniard. “That’s up to training sessions and when you are on that pitch to have the impact on the game that the team needs, in order to achieve that.
“He [Eze] is going to have many opportunities to do that. His attitude is phenomenal and our players have to adapt as well to his qualities.”
Arteta confirmed centre-half William Saliba is back in training following a back problem but remains some weeks away from a first-team return.
