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Arteta refuses to use ‘excuses to justify’ Arsenal incompetence

Mikel Arteta - Arsenal
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A deplorable start to the season sees the Gunners remain pointless after two league games, leaving their manager under intense pressure.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta admits his team is “not where we want to be” but refuses to use “excuses to justify where we are.”

Arsenal sit deep down in the Premier League table, occupying one of the three relegation spots with zero points collected and a goal difference of -4.

The London side, who failed to achieve European qualification last season after securing an eighth-place league finish, were no match for both their local rivals as they suffered consecutive 2-0 defeats against Chelsea and, quite surprisingly, Brentford.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of the Carabao Cup clash with West Brom, Arteta emphasized “togetherness” as a key factor for the team to go in the right direction.

“Well, you have to realise first that the position that we are in is not where we want to be and we should not accept it,” the former club captain said.

“We should not use too many excuses to justify where we are, just try to use the moment and the challenge ahead of us as an opportunity and take it and encourage everybody around you to have the same mentality, the same energy, and things will turn around.

“We have done a lot of work, we are under difficult circumstances at the moment, but we need everybody together and the spirit to be fair around here, the togetherness that we have around the team, and even with the ownership, it’s really strong, but we need to give our fans and probably the outside world some encouragement, and that’s only given with results, so we need to get results.”

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