‘We’re not going to bottle it’: Mikel Arteta rallies his Arsenal players by demanding a huge bounce-back performance against Nottingham Forest and states his side can still chase down Man City for the title
- Mikel Arteta has issued a rallying call to his under-pressure Arsenal players
- The Gunners boss doesn’t believe his team have bottled the Premier League title
- Arteta believes his team can still chase down Manchester City at the top
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has assured fans that his side won’t ‘bottle’ the final two games of the season in light of their recent pronounced struggles.
The north-London club have in recent weeks been widely labelled as ‘bottling it’ after dropping nine points in April – including a 4-1 beating by Manchester City – while top of the table.
This then culminated in a 3-0 defeat to Brighton last weekend.
But Arteta is adamant his players can be title contenders next season and will finish strongly.
He said: ‘We have shown this season (that we can be title contenders) and we are still there. There’s still two games to go.
Gunners boss Mikel Arteta believes his Arsenal players won’t bottle the end-of-season run-in
Arsenal will travel to face relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest in their final away game of the season on Saturday
Arteta (right) believes his players can still become Premier League champions this season
‘We can still be champions against probably the best team in the history of the Premier League.
‘We are still there and we’re not going to bottle it, that’s for sure. What happens next season depends on how we evolve and how we start.’
The manager confirmed Gabriel Martinelli and Oleksandr Zinchenko are out for the rest of the season.
He added: ‘Gabby’s is a pretty nasty injury, it’ll be at least weeks. Alex is a calf issue, and he won’t be able to play in the next few games.’
