Arsenal and Brighton go head to head in the final matchweek of the 2020-21 Premier League season and before Sunday’s game, Graham Potter has delivered a surprising analysis about the Gunners.
Arsenal have been woeful this season and there’s a big chance that they might miss out on European football next time around. Most pundits have pointed fingers at the players as well as their manager for the failure to come up with the goods.
But, Brighton boss Graham Potter has claimed that their opponents for Sunday’s final match have actually made progress under their current boss Mikel Arteta.
The Brighton boss said, as reported: “You could see that they’re disappointed because a club of that size is always competing in the top competitions, but sometimes in football that happens, but they have performed really well in games and should have won and scored more.
“They have missed some opportunities. They can still attack you from any area on the pitch, they’re making progress as a team, Mikel is making progress there.
“They’re going to be strong, fighting for the points to get into Europe. From being written off a few months ago, they’re still in the fight and that’s a credit to them. They’re going to be a tough team.”
Mikel Arteta himself has admitted that despite his team’s recent good performances in the league, Arsenal have been plagued with various issues over the course of this season, a big reason why they haven’t been able to maintain consistency.
Arteta told the press: “Yes, it[Arsenal’s form in recent weeks] is very good but the league is played over 38 games,”
“But at least it shows that we are able to do it and when we have a little bit more of a normal context, more normal situations, I am very positive about what we can do, but at the end of the day we are judged on what we have done over the whole season and it is not, for sure, where we want to be.
“There’s a lot of things from September to December that are contributing to that [dip in form in November]. I don’t believe it was just one issue. There were a lot of things in that period.
“This is my job: to identify, to be very critical with myself first and then try to analyse and find out why things happened. Whether that’s negative or positive. If it’s positive, let’s keep doing a lot of the good things that we are doing.”
We can understand why Graham Potter has chosen to praise Arsenal before Sunday’s match but in reality, the Gunners have been really poor, more so considering the big-six status of their club.
The North London are in a complete mess, both on as well off the pitch and if they miss out on European football next season then things are going to get even worse for Mikel Arteta in the coming months.
Graham Potter led Brighton to a 3-2 win over Manchester City in midweek so we can imagine Arsenal having a really tough time against the Seagulls on Sunday.
