“I can’t work with him as my club’s captain and here is why”: Arsenal’s coach Mikel Arteta has revealed why he can’t work with Martin Odegaard as his club’s captain anymore, names his successor immediately
Mikel Arteta’s incredulous reaction needed no interpretation as the Arsenal boss collapsed to the floor in the dying moments of their London derby against Chelsea on Sunday.
The Gunners had twice come within inches of snatching victory at Stamford Bridge. But, perhaps like their title hopes, the Spaniard’s legs crumbled underneath him after watching in disbelief, as Leandro Trossard was guilty of fluffing his lines late on.
Having dropped to the bench to make way for the returning captain Martin Odegaard, the 29-year-old had to wait until the 71st minute before he got the call from Arteta to replace goalscorer Gabriel Martinelli. They had conceded an equaliser just moments before after Pedro Neto’s long-range strike brought the Blues level.
Trossard’s first opportunity arrived with only three minutes to go. Mikel Merino’s flick was kept out by Robert Sanchez and the rebound fell to the forward, who only had to keep his effort on target to find the winner.
But he blazed it over the bar, resulting in a collective groan from the away fans. Unfortunately for them, they had no idea that the worst was still to come.
Deep into five minutes of stoppage time, William Saliba found himself in acres of space on the left and the Frenchman sent in a dangerous low cross. Trossard was the first to arrive into the box ahead of Kai Havertz and the Belgian took it upon himself to steer the ball into the far corner, but the contact wasn’t strong enough and the ball trickled wide.
A furious Havertz bellowed at him for denying him a simple tap-in. On the touchline, Arteta was picking himself up off the ground – wondering how his side had failed to score.
It might well have been disallowed by VAR for offside if they had scored as replays showed Saliba was near enough level with Levi Colwill, but that will won’t provide any solace for the north London side.
Arsenal were forced to settle for a point, but it must’ve felt like a defeat after squandering the lead and failing to score. It means they have now gone four games without a win for the first time in 19 months, leaving them nine points behind Liverpool at the top.
“There was a similar path last year. People were doubting about scoring and after January we had a spell of five or six games where we were putting five past opponents,” he said.
“Every season you have a rough period and it’s down to us to get going again. The belief in the team is still really high. We have such great players and we can turn it around quickly.”
He added: “In general we are pushing to win games and score goals. It just needs to click and hopefully that will be on Sunday.”
