Mikel Arteta has demanded Arsenal transfer their Europa League form into the Premier League, where he says his side need to start winning matches “immediately”.
Goals from Eddie Nketiah, Mohamed Elneny, Joe Willock and Folarin Balogun helped the Gunners ease past Irish side Dundalk 4-2 in Dublin on Thursday to finish top of Group B with a 100 per cent record – the first time they have won six successive European matches since 2005.
That fine European form is in sharp contrast to their domestic struggles, where the club have lost six out of their last nine matches to slump to 15th in the table.
With the Europa League now finished with until February, Arsenal can focus all their attention on domestic competition, with Arteta stressing the urgent need to pick up positive results, starting with Sunday’s home match against Burnley.
“At the end of the day we need to start winning football matches immediately,” he said.
“We cannot sustain the results we had in the last six to eight weeks and that has to be immediately and we know that has to start on Sunday.
“Now we have to forget about the Europa League till February and focus on the Premier League strongly, and the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup when it restarts in January.
“And now we need everybody on board. Obviously we have a large squad and we have a lot of players back from injury so we will have the opportunity to pick who is better in the moment to still rotate some players, but that gives us more options in the Premier League as well to focus there and to get the results that we need.”
Arteta also reiterated Balogun’s desire to stay at Emirates Stadium.
The 19-year-old is out of contract at the end of the season and had looked set to leave last summer after talks over a new deal broke down.
However, negotiations have now resumed and Arteta says the teenager wants to remain in north London.
“We’re having some discussions with the player, he knows we want to retain him at the club,” said the Spaniard. “We know that the length of his contract at the moment is an issue, but we’re trying to resolve it in the best possible way.
“We want him to stay he said to me he wants to stay at the club, so hopefully we can reach an agreement and extend his contract.”
