{"id":398141,"date":"2026-04-18T04:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T04:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/398141\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T04:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T04:38:13","slug":"arsenal-will-not-play-for-a-draw-in-manchester-city-face-off-insists-arteta-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/398141\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal will not play for a draw in Manchester City face-off, insists Arteta | Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mikel Arteta will go all out for victory in Sunday\u2019s Premier League title showdown at Manchester City<\/a> and has not thought for \u201cone second\u201d about setting up for a draw.<\/p>\n

Arsenal are six points clear of City, albeit they have played an extra game, and a stalemate could move them decisively towards the trophy they crave. According to Opta\u2019s projections, Arsenal<\/a> would have an 89% probability of winning the title if it finished all square at the Etihad Stadium.<\/p>\n

Arsenal have struggled for attacking cohesion in recent weeks, starting in the 2-0 Carabao Cup final defeat against City<\/a> on 22 March, and their season has been defined by defensive excellence. When they advanced to the Champions League semi-finals on Wednesday, where they will face Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, they did so with a 0-0 home draw against Sporting<\/a> for a 1-0 aggregate quarter-final win. It has raised the prospect of Arteta prioritising a clean sheet at City, but he has a loftier target.<\/p>\n

Pep Guardiola repeated his belief on Friday that \u201cif we lose, it\u2019s over\u201d. Arteta intends to test the theory and he was categoric in his response when asked whether he would sign in advance for a point. \u201cNo,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to win the game. We are there to win the game. We haven\u2019t talked about that [the draw]. We need to win the game. And we are preparing to win the game. There\u2019s no difference to any stadium we have been to in the last five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to spend one second talking about that. We prepare every game to win. That\u2019s why we are where we are and we\u2019re going to continue to do the same. We see it as a big opportunity for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arsenal were accused of parking the bus when they drew 0-0 at the Etihad Stadium<\/a> in 2024. Back then, with nine more games to go, it felt like a good point as it kept them one ahead of City, albeit two behind Liverpool. Arsenal went on to win eight of their final nine, losing against Aston Villa, but, as Liverpool fell apart, City won all nine remaining games to take the title.<\/p>\n

When it was all over, Rodri criticised Arsenal for their mentality<\/a>. \u201cThe difference was in the head,\u201d said the City midfielder. \u201cWhen they faced us at the Etihad, I saw these guys do not want to beat us. They just want to draw. We would not do that the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mikel Arteta presides over training at London Colney. Photograph: Stuart MacFarlane\/Arsenal FC\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Arteta was reminded of that 0-0 and how the season played out. \u201cYou have to make it [the point] good, as well, in the next games,\u201d he said. \u201cOr, we should have made it even better in that game [against City] when we had the opportunity to do it. We\u2019re going to play the game in the circumstances and the context in the best possible way to win it, and the outcome? We don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to propose a game like this [parking the bus] because we never do that. Sometimes, the opponent is that good that forces you to be there, and in City\u2019s case you\u2019re going to have moments that you do the same \u2013 deep in your box for periods of time. That\u2019s the reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arsenal have scored only three goals in their past five matches as the physical and mental strain of the season has started to show. Declan Rice said after the second leg against Sporting that the team had to do the basics better<\/a>, especially simple, short passes. The midfielder called for greater composure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s part of football,\u201d Arteta said. \u201cPart of the moment. Part of, as well, when you are missing certain players that the relationship, the cohesion, is a bit different. To work on that means sometimes don\u2019t talk too much about it and take more honesty, more responsibility and do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arteta said that Bukayo Saka was still out with an achilles problem. He was unclear as to whether Jurri\u00ebn Timber, Riccardo Calafiori and Martin \u00d8degaard would return from their respective injuries. Arteta intimated that Noni Madueke should be available after limping off against Sporting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said it many times \u2013 get all the players available in April, May \u2026 your best players on the pitch as much as possible and the probability to win it increases dramatically,\u201d Arteta said. \u201cIt\u2019s as simple and as difficult as that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mikel Arteta will go all out for victory in Sunday\u2019s Premier League title showdown at Manchester City and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-398141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}