Mikel Arteta: We Are Too Emotional At Home

Mikel Arteta agrees with critics about home form…

Mikel Arteta agrees with certain critics that the team plays with too much emotion at home which has caused us to ship needless goals at the Emirates Stadium, he told reporters (via HaytersTV).

Following last week’s 2-2 draw in the north London derby, our lack of defensive control at home has come under intense scrutiny – especially from the Emirates faithful.

The team defends with a different level of coolness on the road which has been evident this term, with the team keeping three clean sheets across two different competitions.

Last season, we had the record for the most amount of away clean sheets which is usually the mark of champions – but we’ve struggled to replicate that form in north London.

Arteta has pointed to the emotion of the team when playing in front of the raucous atmosphere and has called for cooler heads.

“A lot of thoughts, believe me,” the Spaniard said when asked about his thoughts on the lack of clean sheets at home.

“I think, especially at home, we have a lot of individual errors leading to goals. That has caused us problems especially when away from home we haven’t had that.

“It’s true that away from home, the approach is sometimes different from opponents, but it’s something that we have to turn around quickly.

“At times we are (too emotional), yes. We want to attack too fast.”

While Arteta agrees that the team is too emotional, he’s certainly not focusing on how we behave when scoring a goal or appealing to officials.

The boss wants the team to show some composure when regaining position and not attempt to attack while the team is out of shape.

Why? Because we’re more likely to lose possession which then creates a basketball game with enormous gaps for the opposition to exploit.