Mikel Arteta has responded to Thierry Henry’s claim about ‘Champions League failure” at Arsenal.
Mikel Arteta has responded to Theirry Henry’s claim that finishing outside of the Champions League spots would be a ‘failure’ for Arsenal.
The Gunners are currently sixth on the Premier League table, four points behind Manchester United who are fourth, and have three games in hand.
Arsenal have not qualified for the Champions League since 2016, and club legend Henry said that anything less than a top-four finish would reflect on a poor season for his former club.
“The best thing about Arsenal is that they didn’t play [last weekend],” Henry said on CBS Sports.
“West Ham didn’t take advantage of it. Tottenham has never taken advantage of it. But Arsenal had to go and win at Wolves. That was a massive win, so there are still a lot of games to go.
“For me, if they don’t do it, as I said at the start of the season, then it will be a failure.”
And Arsenal boss Arteta was asked to comment on Henry’s statements ahead of this weekend game.
The Spaniard said: “I don’t know, I didn’t read what he said.
“Everybody is free to say whatever they want and that’s why somebody allows someone to write an opinion.
“Tomorrow our aim is to play as good as we can and win the match, that’s the target.”
Arteta added that the club are aiming to beat Brentford, who they lost to on the opening day of the campaign.
“We go game by game,” the former midfielder added. “We have to win tomorrow and then we will be closer to that objective.
“It’s true that we have some games in hand and there’s still a long way to go and a lot of things are going to happen, a lot of turnarounds and we have to be ready to play within the context that this is going to happen because there are a lot of teams involved there.”
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