Arsenal’s players will line up and give newly-crowned Premier League champions Liverpool a guard of honour at Anfield on Sunday afternoon – and Mikel Arteta will forced them to do so
Mikel Arteta wants his Arsenal players to feel the pain when they perform a guard of honour for Liverpool on Sunday – and use it as motivation to win the Premier League title next season.
There were questions whether the Gunners would follow Chelsea’s lead and stand and applaud Arne Slot’s champions onto the field at Anfield. It comes just four days after the Champions League exit at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain confirmed Arsenal would be trophyless for a fifth straight year.
But the Arsenal boss insists that it is only right for his players to pay tribute to the champions. And he feels it will do them good, after falling short this term.
Arteta addressed the guard of honour in his press conference on Friday. He declared: “Something has to drive you, to motivate you and pain is probably a good one to use when you don’t really want to do something, but it’s the right thing to do and then use that as a motivation for next season.
“But they (Liverpool) deserve that guard of honour because they have been the best team and they fully deserve it.
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“When somebody is better, you have to applaud and accept it and try to reach that level.”
Arsenal arrive at Anfield trailing Liverpool by 15 points. Their form has taken a downturn in recent weeks as they focused increasingly on Europe, and they are guaranteed to record fewer points this term than they managed in both of the past two seasons – when they finished runners up to Manchester City.
The Gunners could again finish second in the league. They head into their remaining three matches holding a three-point lead over third-placed City.
But following their failure to launch a serious title challenge to Liverpool and their last-four exits from both the Champions League and Carabao Cup this season, Areta has courted criticism. The Spaniard has only one trophy – the 2020 FA Cup – to show for his five-and-a-half years in charge.
“I have so much to achieve and that is what drives me every day,” he continued. “The people and the staff and the players drive me every single day.
“If there is somebody that has raised the standard and the expectation the highest, it has been me. Because I have been demanding and expecting much more, and after that much more, and after that much more.
“For me it is the only way to do it, for everybody to have really high standards and demands. We are very, very close to achieving it. I understand the disappointment and the criticism. It is all part of it.
“At the end there is one winner and the rest of them aren’t going to win, so they need to reinvent themselves and do better and that is part of the cycle.”
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