Mikel Arteta demanded his Arsenal players play with ‘no fear’ and ‘pure fire’ as they look to capitalise on the biggest opportunity to win a major trophy across his six-and-a-half year reign.
The Gunners’ season is threatening to fall flat after they lost the Carabao Cup final to Man City, were knocked out of the FA Cup by Championship side Southampton and lost at home to Bournemouth on Saturday to deal a major blow to their Premier League title hopes.
It leaves the north London club slowly staring at the possibility of a sixth consecutive season without a trophy.
But ahead of Arsenal’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against Sporting Lisbon, where they hold a 1-0 advantage from the first leg, Arteta delivered an impassioned plea to his players.
‘No fear. Pure fire. That’s it,’ said the Spaniard. ‘I’m on fire. I’m on fire! That’s it, nothing else. I’m dreaming so much.
‘That’s what I want to see on the players, on the people, on myself. That’s it. Go for it because the opportunity is unbelievable.
‘We are in April, we have an incredible opportunity ahead of us. Let’s confront it, let’s go for it by really putting absolutely everything into it.
‘(It is) The biggest opportunity of six and a half years.’
Arteta has a number of injury concerns ahead of tonight with Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Jurrien Timber, Martin Odegaard, Riccardo Calafiori all missing open training today.
The Arsenal boss, though, hinted some of those players will be available to help see his side over the line against the Portuguese giants.
On whether Saka or Timber will be available, he said: ‘Maybe one of them, let’s see.’
The manager confirmed Saka has an Achilles issue which he sustained prior to Arsenal’s Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City last month.
Eberechi Eze also spoke at the pre-Sporting Lisbon press conference and said rivals who are counting on Arsenal to capitulate will have to find a way to cope when they are proven wrong this season.
He remarked: ‘No, I don’t care. I’m not too interested in what people think, how they feel about us winning,
‘I just know that we’ve got a team that’s more than capable and has proven that we’re of the highest level and when we do win, it will be down to everyone to deal with that.’
