ST ALBANS, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 18: Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta attends a press conference at London ... [+]
Arsenal’s dire away record at the traditional top six in the Premier League is no secret. The London club hasn’t won on any such away trip since 2015 when Arsenal defeated Manchester City 2-0. On Monday, however, the London club will be looking for a first win on the red half of Merseyside since 2012, when the current Arsenal boss was still pulling the strings in midfield.
Two recent victories against the defending champion will strengthen Mikel Arteta and Arsenal in the belief that they can outmaneuver Liverpool again. The Spaniard thinks that in the long run work ethos and consistency are key to closing the gap with Liverpool. Last season, Arsenal finished 43 points behind Jurgen Klopp’s team.
"That is a different level," said Arteta at a news conference. "They have done that in the Premier League and in the Champions League as well. And that is why they raised the bar so high. Not only them, Man City as well in recent years. That is the level and you have to be able to compete at that level because this is our context and this is our reality.”
He explained: “If we want to be one of those teams, those basic things have to be implemented every day. That goes through in training - you cannot expect them to do that at weekends and train in a different way. That is the way you conduct yourself every day.”
LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 29: Arsenal Head Coach Mikel Arteta leads his team out before the FA ... [+]
In July, Arteta’s men defeated the champion 2-1 with solid rearguard defending and clinical finishing before edging past an undercooked Liverpool on penalties in the Community Shield in August. As so often at Arsenal, those victories were considered the start of a new dawn, but Arsenal’s record under Arteta remains mixed and the task ahead remains enormous for a coach who, in a short space of time, has reorganized his team impressively. His eleven play out from the back and can be lethal on the counter.
"I don’t know if in football history someone has closed a gap of 43 points if they maintain the same level in just a few months,” said Arteta. “Obviously what you are expecting to do is be much better and more consistent and then they can drop the level a little bit, and then the gap is not that big. But we can control what we can control, which is our performances and our level of consistency. Obviously we will do our best to try to be much better than last year.”
Arteta understands that both clubs are going through very different moments, but for the first time in recent seasons Arsenal travel to Anfield with a sense that the club can get a result. Of course, this time the Londoners will face a much more focused opponent. Liverpool seeks to consolidate its position at the top of English soccer, needing to relentlessly deliver the same intensity that so marks its game. Arsenal’s ambitions are still limited. The club wants to reestablish itself as a team in the top four. Arsenal’s aura has long faded whereas Liverpool’s halo still shines brightly.
"They go to any ground, even when they are 2-0 up, 3-0 up, 4-0 up, and they still go in the same way,” said Arteta. “This is an incredible credit to the coaching team, the culture they have created and the spirit of that team. You can see that in the 24 or 26 players they have in the squad. There is not one player that plays half-half on the day, that is not very interested or just plays for moments in the game. They just go for it, every single minute of every game. Throughout the season to do that for 10 months, that’s a massive compliment I think.”
“There is some variability depending on what they do, how we have to control those aspects, how we can attack in different ways as well. It is like quick waves all the time with them, without much time to breathe. It is a really quick game, it doesn’t see long sequences of passes against them. We have to be at our best, that’s for sure.”
