However, despite the task ahead of his charges, O’Neil was adamant that “tomorrow could be our day”. Mikel Arteta’s Gunners currently top the Premier League, five points clear of Manchester City, who handily dispatched Cherries at the Vitality Stadium 4-1 last time out.
Gary O Neil said: “I think that the lads are very good at putting things into context, of course. But that doesn’t make losing on a Saturday feel any better. Like the fact that we lost to Manchester City, no one felt any better about it, sat in the dressing room after. We want to be competitive, of course, and the league and where we are at this moment, we need to make sure that it’s always, it can’t just be: “okay, we’ve got a team that’s near us in the league, let’s make sure we’re up for this one.’ It’s like, ‘yeah, we need to be up for tomorrow’. You never know when it’s going to be your day. Tomorrow could be our day, so let’s make sure we’re ready.”
Only Manchester City have bested Arsenal at the Emirates home in the Premier League this campaign, with the Gunners taking 29 points of a possible 36 from home fixtures. Explaining the task ahead of his side,
Gary O’Neil continued: “The (Emirates is the) toughest place to go, no doubt, at the moment. They’re a fantastic side, top of the league, going to their place as well. So, yes, it’s the toughest test you can face at this moment, but we go there with ways that we feel we can cause them a problem. Obviously, the intensity they show and how aggressive they are without the ball and how good they are with the ball. They’re a very good side. And having watched them a lot this week, no surprise that they are where they are and that they’re clear at the top. So they’ll be difficult to catch, I’m sure. But from our point of view, we go there, we try to be well organized, we stick to our plan, and we use ways that we feel we can hurt them.”
Asked if Arteta’s success showed that managers should be given more time,
Gary O’Neil replied: “I think if you’re good, you will show you’re good. That is basically how I see it. I think if you’re not very good and you’re given time, you’ll still be not very good. So, yeah, I think you just need to be good at your job. Mikel was always going to be. I had no doubts about it – working at Manchester City, he had a big reputation already from the work he’d done there with Pep. So, yeah, no surprise to me that he’s doing very, very well. I think it depends what people are judging you on, I guess. Was he doing terribly at the start? I don’t know enough about the situation, where Arsenal in a bad place at the time? Was what he was doing normal? So, yeah, I don’t know too much about it, but generally, if you’re good and you get long enough, you’ll be able to show you’re good.”
