Arteta - I knew what I was jumping into here

It has been a tough restart to the season for Mikel Arteta and his side.

Unbeaten in 2020 before the campaign was paused, we have since been beaten in back-to-back games.

While our head coach is disappointed at those results, but insists that things are changing for the better throughout the club.

"I knew since I joined what I was jumping into," Arteta said. "The past few seasons, what happened, I knew it wasn't a coincidence.

"So I could've sat back and waited to see if the opportunity was still there in the summer, or I could use this time as well to start the process that I want and to start to see where the changes that have to be made are.

"A lot of things have already changed at the club and are in evolution to change, even results and energy was changing just before the coronavirus. I cannot control everything.

"Now I don't have [the players] in my hands as much as I would like during the day, because they are in and out, in and out and that is obviously not ideal for what we need as a team and as a club. But again, it's not an excuse.

"We are here to win football games and that's my responsibility. I take it fully. But we are assessing a lot of things to make a very clear picture of what is going to take us to the next level, because right now is not enough."

So does Arteta believe we can still finish in the top four this season?

"We will see the reaction now," he said. "When you are winning two or three games in a row, it's easy, when you lose one it becomes a little bit more difficult.

"When you lose two in a row, two very different games that are completely different to assess, I want to see that reaction and how much they want it and how they're going to react as a team as well as how they're going to react as individuals and go for it."