Mikel Arteta Urges Arsenal to Be 'Ready for a Battle' Against Burnley

​Mikel Arteta has urged his Arsenal side to demonstrate their new-found resilience in their visit to Burnley on Sunday. 

In preparation for their trip to Turf Moor, Arteta assigned his players the task of barging into tackling bags during training this week, such is the anticipated challenge of facing this Clarets side.

Arteta is clearly aware of the type of threat Burnley possess, and said, as quoted by the Daily Mail, that his side must be ready to 'battle'.

"It's one of the most English brands," he said. "What they do, they do it really, really well and they're specialists at that. The type of game they want to play makes it really difficult for the opponent. We need to be ready for a battle, be clever and take the game the way we want."

Bernd Leno

Since Arteta's arrival, there has been a renewed focus on improving the side's discipline and showing an aggressive attitude.

On the Spaniard's first day as head coach, he had all his players barge into tackle bags, so this week's training exercise would have come as no surprise to Arteta's squad. 

Former Arsenal manager Unai Emery was famed for trying to tailor his tactics to nullify the strengths of his opponents, though this was not effective in reality.

Unai Emery

However, Arteta is very aware of opposition strengths, but demands his side to be the protagonists and to impose themselves on the game.

"We will go there with complete focus and energy and a very clear plan, because if not, they are very hard to deal with," he said. 

"A lot of teams, they get bullied even if they believe they cannot be bullied. This is how good they are and this is their strength. So we have to make sure this does not happen."

Cedric

The Gunners bolstered their defensive ranks at the end of the January transfer window. On deadline day, they signed Southampton right-back Cedric Soares ​on loan for the remainder of the season, which followed a loan deal for Flamengo's Pablo Mari.

Arteta also commented on the arrival of Cedric, confirming he had been keeping tabs on the 28-year-old while he was at ​​Manchester City

"He's got that desire, that commitment," he said. "With more time I'd like to have a specialist for every position, to do exactly what we want to do. What I want is to have more options and more availability to be more unpredictable."


Source : 90min