The game will take place with a cloud hanging over City, who have been accused of more than 100 alleged breaches of financial rules. City have denied wrongdoing but could face tough sanctions, including points deductions and even expulsion, if they are found to have broken regulations by an independent commission. But Arteta, who was previously Pep Guardiola’s assistant at City, said his team had to “look after our own garden”.
“Let’s focus on what we have to do and win enough football matches for that to happen (win the league),” the Arsenal manager said. We have to earn the right to win it, that’s for sure.”
Arsenal, hunting their first Premier League title for 19 years, host Brentford today after losing their past two games. A narrow FA Cup exit against City was followed by a shock 1-0 loss at Everton – just a second league defeat of the campaign.
Arteta said his players’ reaction to the defeat at Goodison Park had been “really positive”. “They are very different matches we lost against City and Everton, but losing brings a lot of opportunities to look at other things and see the reaction of the team,” he said. “The reaction of the team has been superb this week. Tomorrow we’re going to put a great performance in, in front of our crowd to try to win the game.”
Klopp gave Liverpool flops two days off after Wolves loss
Jurgen Klopp has revealed he gave Liverpool’s struggling stars two days off after last weekend’s embarrassing 3-0 defeat against Wolves – their third loss in four Premier League matches.
Klopp branded the result at Molineux the “pinnacle” of Liverpool’s problems in an already turbulent season – just months after they came close to winning an unprecedented quadruple. Liverpool are languishing in 10th place in the Premier League, with their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League via a top-four finish fading by the week.
The Reds boss said he felt in an “average mood” after speaking to his players on Sunday to review the game and decided it was best to give everyone some breathing space. With Liverpool not back in action until next Monday in the Merseyside derby against Everton, Klopp felt the break could lift morale in his fatigued squad. “In Germany this question would have come much earlier – ‘How can you give them two days off in the situation you are in?’” Klopp said.
“You can – but it is not beneficial – train every day. We played bad at Wolverhampton, next day we came in, made the analysis and spoke to each other and then gave them two days off because it is a very long time between Saturday and the following Monday. But of course I could have said ‘Sunday training, recovery’ and from Monday on we go for Everton. It wouldn’t have been helpful at all. It would have been bad, it would have caused injuries, it would have caused a lot of problems.”
Klopp said his decision was also partly motivated by a desire to give himself time to mentally refresh. Liverpool have had a dismal period that included two defeats at Brighton, in the Premier League and FA Cup, and loss at Brentford. Midfielder Thiago Alcantara, struggling with a hip injury, is a doubt for the Everton clash. Diogo Jota could feature after the forward returned to training following a calf injury that has kept him sidelined since October.
Fixtures
Today (1500 GMT unless stated): West Ham v Chelsea (1230), Arsenal v Brentford, Crystal Palace v Brighton, Fulham v Nottingham Forest, Leicester v Tottenham, Southampton v Wolves, Bournemouth v Newcastle (1730)Tomorrow: Leeds v Manchester United (1400), Manchester City v Aston Villa (1630)
Monday: Liverpool v Everton (2000)