Arteta on differences from last sports meeting | News

On By Littum

On Tuesday we return to the Estadio Jose Alvalade for the first time since the start of 2023, but Mikel Arteta says his side look completely different to that meeting with Sporting in the Europa League.

Back in March 2023, we drew 2-2 in the Portuguese capital in the first leg of the Europa League knockout round, before being beaten on penalties in the second leg. Five of our players who featured in the first game have since left the club and the manager said he watched the game again recently and barely recognized his team. He said it shows how much the team has progressed over the past 18 months or so.

“It’s usually a good exercise to watch the team a few years ago and I watched both games back to get an understanding,” he said in his pre-match press conference.

“How we prepared them, what worked well and what didn’t, it’s hard to recognize the team two years later. You tend to look and look at the game and other things in a different way, but it was good.

“It seemed fair for a long time in a way, but here we are again. The good news is that we are now in a different competition, a competition that we really want to win, to be dominant, to be important , and this is where we are.

“Every team is developing and talking about Sporting and what they’ve done, it’s been incredible. And we’ve also progressed a lot compared to where we were two years ago, so it will be a good test.”

Read more

Every word from Arteta’s pre-Sporting presser

Sporting go into this game having won all 11 of their league games so far this term and unbeaten in their four Champions League matches. However, that was achieved under Rube Almorim, who has defected to Manchester United, but Mikel feels the quality he brought into the squad and their style of play means beating Sporting will be a difficult task, but one we can obtain.

We have not tasted success on our European travels in our last five away games, but after coming close to registering a fine result against Inter Milan last time out, Mikel believes we are on course to end that run.

“It’s definitely something we need to improve,” he added, “we have the right steps and looking back at the way we played against Inter, against a team that has been so dominant in the league, was in the Champions League- the final and should have won it. We played and dominated the game we should have won.

“But the reality is you have to make it happen and we didn’t. Those steps are what we need to take next time, be ruthless and be much more effective in the opposition box and when we get there we will , we have to do to take the three points away from here.

“The race (sport) is incredible, it tells you it’s not just about their qualities but their ambition, the team energy they have, it’s a big challenge we have. To come here tomorrow, make a statement and show that we are able to be ourselves against this kind of opponent and win the game.”

Read more

Everything you need to know about Sporting CP

Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted provided appropriate credit is given to www.arsenal.com as the source.