With Mikel Arteta spending another season without silverware blaming Arsenal‘s injuries and red cards, Arne Slot has said “excuses are for teams that don’t win.”
Arsenal will finish the season at least nine points behind champions Liverpool, but the gap could be as many as 15 points after Sunday.
Though they reached the semi-finals of the Champions League it will be another season without significant achievement for Arteta, who has taken every opportunity to blame red cards and injuries for Arsenal‘s woes.
When Liverpool’s title win was confirmed, the Spaniard strangely compared their current points total after 34 games with Arsenal‘s after 38 in the previous two campaigns.
Asked about Arteta’s stance in an interview with BBC Sport, Slot gave a pointed response.
“Everybody has the right to have his own opinion,” he conceded.
“What Mikel said was the moment we won the league we were at 85, 83 points, I don’t know, and at the end of the season they had more points.
“But four games before the end when we won it, we were on more points than them.
“So what he meant was sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time.
“I totally agree with him on that, only not in a Premier League season. So in the Champions League, FA Cup, World Cup, then it is about in the right time at the right place.”
“Excuses are for teams that don’t win the league”
While Arsenal again spent heavily to bring in Riccardo Calafiori, Mikel Merino and David Raya last summer, along with the loan signings of Neto and Raheem Sterling, Slot’s sole signing was Federico Chiesa.
“That makes it probably even more special,” he explained.
“What is also nice is that the one time we won the league at Feyenoord, 14 players left in the beginning of the season, so we had to change 14 players, that is something different to not changing anyone.
“I did it now in two different leagues in two different ways.
“All the excuses that have always been made if a team doesn’t win the league, all these excuses you could give to Liverpool, to Feyenoord, with us maybe not spending or with 14 players gone or not bringing new players in or taking over from someone.
“All these things are excuses for teams that don’t win the league, and it’s nice that if you have all these excuses that you don’t have to use them, but you still won.”
While Slot may make excuses for Liverpool’s Champions League exit – claiming their clashes with Paris Saint-Germain were unfortunately timed after a gruelling “four-month period” – he would not do the same for their title triumph.
Arteta meanwhile will continue to cling to those red cards and injuries, as if those were exclusive to Arsenal.
Fan Comments