Mikel Arteta has told his title-chasing players to join another club if they can’t handle the “noise and bullets” that comes with fighting for the Premier League.
Arsenal face arch-rivals Tottenham on Sunday with their championship credentials on the line after they surrendered a two-goal lead to draw with bottom-of-the-table Wolves.
Arsenal’s destiny remains in their own hands following a largely impressive season which will see them make the short trip across north London perched at the summit.
However, Arteta’s side, who have finished runners-up for the past three years, have faced accusations of being “bottlers” since dropping points at Wolves – one that Arteta moved swiftly to deny.
The Gunners though have won just two of their last seven league games.
Addressing claims that the external noise could become too overwhelming for his players, Arteta replied: “You ask them the question: Do you want to be part of the noise? Or not? If not go and do something else.
“Be part of a different club or do you want to be Arsenal? And everybody has been demanding for 10 years, 15 years that we need to go back there (fighting for the title) and now we are there, and now what? You don’t want noise?
“Noise is part of it and the bullets are part of that and we try to deal with it in the right way and achieve what we are looking for.
“We have to do what we have to do. I don’t think it is going to change for anybody. At the end you have to win the next match and if you do that, you are going to be in a much stronger position and that is the only thing we can control.”
An injury-hit Martin Odegaard has played just 45 minutes across Arsenal’s last five games.
But the Norway international could be available to lead his side out against Tottenham.
Odegaard’s form has been a hot topic for debate. He has scored just one goal this season and only twice in the league in the last year.
However, his playing time has been restricted through a number of different injuries.
And Arteta continued: “The percentage of time he (Odegaard) has been available for us has been far from ideal.
“Again, he has been part of that journey in this year to deal with a lot of injuries and, with us having a lot of important players out like we have now, the team has done extremely well to maintain that level.
“Injuries are the worst part of our profession when a player has a big sequence of events and I understand how Martin wants to be involved with the team, it is tough.”
