IN SPITE OF MAN CITY PROBLEMS, ARTETA LASER-FOCUSED ON ARSENAL

Instead of relying on any penalties imposed on title opponent Manchester City, Premier League winner Mikel Arteta claims Arsenal must earn the right to do so.

Prior to this weekend’s games, Arsenal leads champion City by five points; the two teams will play each other on Wednesday at the Emirates Stadium.

City, which has been accused of more than 100 alleged violations of financial laws, will play in the game under a cloud.

City has denied wrongdoing, but if an independent committee determines that it violated standards, it might be subject to harsh penalties, such as point reductions and possibly expulsion.

However, Arteta, who served as Pep Guardiola’s assistant at City previously, insisted that his club must “take after our own garden.”

The Arsenal boss stated on Friday, “Let’s focus on what we have to do and win enough football games for that to happen (win the league).”

Undoubtedly, we must earn the right to prevail.

After dropping its last two games, Arsenal plays Brentford on Saturday in search of its first Premier League championship in 19 years.

After a close FA Cup loss to City, a shocking 1-0 loss at Everton—only the team’s second league loss of the year—followed.

Arteta claimed that his team had responded “very positively” to the setback at Goodison Park.

Although the games versus City and Everton were significantly different from one another, he added, “losing presents a lot of opportunity to look at other things and assess the reaction of the players.”

This week, the team’s response has been outstanding. To try to win the game, we’ll put on a fantastic display in front of our supporters tomorrow.