Europa League - Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta not contemplating a season without European football
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Updated 10/03/2021 at 13:10 GMT
With Arsenal 10th in the Premier League and out of both domestic cup competitions, they face a real battle to maintain their 24-year streak of qualifying for European competition, but Mikel Arteta is refusing to contemplate a season without continental action. The Gunners face Olympiacos in the Europa League round of 16 on Thursday.
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Mikel Arteta has insisted that he is refusing to contemplate a season without European football, with Arsenal languishing in mid-table.
The last time Arsenal failed to qualify for continental competition was the 1994-95 season, a campaign with much turmoil which saw long-serving manager George Graham fired for alleged financial misconduct.
The Gunners are currently 10th in the Premier League table and have been knocked out of both the FA and Carabao Cups, putting more emphasis on their Europa League run, ahead a meeting with Olympiacos on Thursday in the round of 16.
"I don't want to think that way at all. I am always very positive," Arteta said when asked about a season without continental action.
"I think there is still a lot to play for and what we need is to put four or five wins in a row. If we are able to do that then things are going to look very different in two or three weeks time.
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"If we don't, obviously, we don't have a chance because when we have had the opportunity to do that we haven't done it consistently enough so it's completely down to us.
"I want to think that there is still a lot to play for and we have to be with that mindset because if not it's impossible to achieve anything.
"There is a lot to do in both competitions. We have to go very far to get into the Champions League via the Europa League, with the amount of games you have to win. It's the same in the Premier League.
"The points that we lost in the three away games against Wolves, Aston Villa and Burnley sums up our season a little bit. We should've got much more from those games and we would have been in a different position. But our reality is that at the end, we don't find the way to win.
"We have to learn how to win and be consistent in winning in every three days when you produce those performances. It's the biggest margin that we have to improve."
Arsenal are entering a crunch week, with the two ties against Olympiacos coming either side of a north London derby clash against Tottenham, and Arteta is ready for the task of managing his squad.
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"We have a massive week with the next four games that we have in a short period.
"We have to manage the squad but obviously the main game is tomorrow and we have to focus on that. Tomorrow's game is going to help us for the weekend, it's going to help us for next week. We have to focus on tomorrow."
Arsenal were knocked out of the Europa League by Olympiacos last season at the round of 32 stage on away goals and Arteta is hoping his side can exact revenge.
"Obviously it was a really tough one to swallow. The way it happened at the end, it was really cruel. After everything we did in the two games, to lose the way we did and with the late chance Auba had...
"But we moved on. We have some feelings towards that team and we want to put it right in the next round."
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