Mikel Arteta's response to Arsenal's 'toxic' warning ahead of crunch Chelsea game
A LOOK BACK: Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta faces a pressure game against Chelsea on Sunday, four years after coming through a tough test against the same opponents
Mikel Arteta is no stranger to pivotal matches between Arsenal and Chelsea.
Arteta's Gunners travel to Stamford Bridge on Sunday chasing a win that can keep their title hopes alive. In 2020, though, the stakes were high for different reasons.
When they took to the field for a Boxing Day derby in the capital, Arsenal were coming off a nightmare run of just two points from seven games. The stretch included a 2-0 defeat away to rivals Tottenham and a dismal loss at home to Burnley as Granit Xhaka saw red and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang put through his own net.
A defeat away at Everton prompted the under-pressure Arteta to pull no punches, calling for more fight from his players as he felt the pressure. And that's exactly what he got.
"Victims just bring excuses, negativity and they start to blame everything that is happening around them or that is not going for them," Arteta said after Yerry Mina condemned his team to defeat at Goodison Parl. "You just need people who fight."
There was little of that fight on show three days later as the Gunners were hammered 4-1 at home to Manchester City in the EFL Cup. Former Gunners star Martin Keown feared the worst after that game, suggesting the players were no longer performing for their manager.
"You wonder how toxic the dressing room is when there’s a growing group of players who don’t take part and sit in the corner," Keown told talkSPORT “I wouldn’t say they’d be sniggering, but there is an undercurrent, surely there must be.”
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Whatever Arteta did after that City defeat, it seemed to work. Chelsea had won 3-0 against West Ham in their previous match, but came up short in their second derby of the month.
Arsenal survived an early scare as Mason Mount's free-kick clipped the outside of the post, and got their noses in front 10 minutes before half-time. Kieran Tierney was brought down in the box by Reece James, with Alexandre Lacazette sending Edouard Mendy the wrong way from the penalty spot.
Arteta's side hadn't scored twice in the same match in more than two months going into the game. That changed on the stroke of half-time, though, with Granit Xhaka curling a sumptuous free-kick into the top corner.
Things got even better after the break when Bukayo Saka's wayward cross looped beyond Mendy, and Chelsea's eventual rally came too late. Tammy Abraham pulled a goal back, but Bernd Leno helped secure victory when he kept out a penalty from Jorginho in stoppage-time.
After the game, Tierney shared some insight into Arteta's half-time message for the Gunners. “[He told us to] keep going," the Scottish international told Sky Sports. “The last few weeks we’ve been in a different situation at half-time, so we did go in more positive.
“As I said, it was ‘keep going’. It was hard work that got us here in the first place, so we need to keep that up first and foremost.”
That victory sparked a turnaround in Arsenal's fortunes. They sat 15th before kick-off, but the win over Chelsea started a run of 16 points from a possible 18 to lift Arteta's team into the top half.
As that run came to an end, Arteta made an even more important investment as Martin Odegaard joined on an initial loan from Real Madrid. Now, with Arsenal approaching another potentially pivotal clash with Chelsea, the Norwegian's return from injury can help spark them back into life.
Arsenal have earned 11 points from seven outings since their skipper was injured in November, losing their last two away games against Bournemouth and Newcastle. Odegaard returned from the bench in Wednesday's defeat against Inter Milan, with Arteta pleased with the performance if not the result.
"The way we played tonight, this team can go to Chelsea and win," Arteta said after the reverse at the San Siro. He'll be hoping another victory over the Blues can have the same impact it had nearly four years ago.
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