Arsenal Held 'Clear the Air' Talks Prior to Europa League Victory Over Rapid Wien

04 December 2020 19:45

Arsenal players are said to have held furious 'clear the air' talks during the week, resulting in a better dressing room atmosphere for their 4-1 victory over Rapid Wien on Thursday.

The Gunners started the season strongly but a couple of disastrous results have left them languishing in the bottom half of the table. A week after beating Manchester United at Old Trafford, Mikel Arteta's side were hammered 3-0 at home to Aston Villa, and picked up a second successive home defeat to Wolves at the weekend.

Arteta evidently felt action was necessary in the wake of the Wolves defeat and according to ESPN, he called his squad and staff together on Tuesday to have it out. He asked his players to hold nothing back, and they took full advantage, with fingers being pointed between prominent members of the squad.

Talks continued even after Arteta and his staff called the meeting, and ESPN cite 'multiple sources' as saying things escalated after the boss left the building. The end result, however, was 'amicable' and led to a renewed determination to succeed.

That may have been evident in their rampant Europa League victory as a much-changed Gunners side brushed the Austrians aside to qualify for the round of 32. Alexandre Lacazette, Pablo Mari and Eddie Nketiah had Arsenal 3-0 up at half-time, and Emile Smith Rowe added a fourth after a Koya Kitagawa strike pulled one back.

Looking ahead to their north London derby with Tottenham this weekend, Arteta said: “I think the boys showed a great energy, character and aggression. Right from the beginning you could feel they were touched from the last defeat and everyone individually played a really good game.

“In the final third we were really aggressive with the ball, we created many chances, scored four goals and probably should have scored more - and now let's take that into Sunday, a very special game, we are all looking forward to it, and let's do it all again.”

Source: 90min