Mikel Arteta has sent a defiant message to Arsenal fans ahead of this weeks games against West Brom and Manchester City.
The Arsenal boss is already under pressure to keep his job following back-to-back defeats to newly-promoted Brentford and Chelsea to kick off their Premier League campaign.
Arteta’s car was surrounded by angry Arsenal fans as he left the Emirates after the 2-0 defeat to Chelsea, in a game where the Gunners were booed off at both half time and full time.
But the Spaniard has praised the fans and told them to stick with the project the club is trying to build.
‘First of all, [I want] to say thank you because the atmosphere that we saw before the game [against Chelsea] when the team was getting the introduction of every member, it was so special, I had goose bumps and I was feeling like nothing before,’ he told Arsenal’s official website.
‘Then I think they tried to support the team very much and I know they are disappointed when you lose at home, there has to be some reaction, but this is a project that is going to take some time.
‘You can see and tell from the recruitment that we’ve done and the really young squad that we have at the moment and it cannot happen overnight.
‘We all want to make it as quick as possible and we know that the responsibility for us it to fight with the top teams in every competition and that’s not going to change, and I think we really need them and this group of players really needs them and the club needs them now next to us because we need that confidence, that support and that energy.’
The Arsenal board are expected to give Arteta until the international break in October to change the club’s fortunes on the pitch.
But if nothing changes, then they would seriously consider relieving him of his duties, with former Chelsea boss Antonio Conte seen as the perfect man to replace the 39-year-old.
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