Arsenal show first signs of choking in defeat by Aston Villa

With only seven matches to go we are deep into cliche territory where managers say things such as: “We’re taking it one game at a time.”

Step forward Mikel Arteta who isn’t known for great piece of oratory. Ahead of this afternoon’s match at home to Aston Villa the Arsenal manager said: “It is the only thing possible to look at one day and one game”.

“It is the only thing that is possible because it’s the only thing that maintains your focus and determines the tasks that you have to do on the day, which is the only thing that you can control,” he said.

With the title race set to go down to the wire you can see why Arteta prefers to err on the side of cliche rather than come out with bombastic statements. The north Londoners, arguably, have the toughest run in between themselves, City and Liverpool, and starting today against Champions League-spot chasing Villa it’s easy to see why bland utterances in public are the order of the day.  

“We will know the results [of City vs Luton and Liverpool vs Palace] but we’ll still have our duty to win our game which is the only thing that we can control,” Arteta said on Friday. “That’s happened a few times already and it’s going to happen again in the next few weeks, so we’ll just focus on what we can do.

“It’s the most beautiful part of the season coming up right now and a very busy schedule. We’re going to have a really tough [game] against a really good side, and are we going to have to be really good to beat them.”

Injury-stricken Villa have some notable absences with Matty Cash, Douglas Luiz, Jacob Ramsey and Boubacar Kamara ruled out. And Arteta wants Arsenal to take advantage of their opponent’s poor fortunes.

“We always try to use things to our advantage. We don’t know what they are going to do and that’s nothing we can control. They still won [against Lille in the Europa Conference League] and they are a really good side, so we know the danger and we know our strengths as well, and we’ll try to do what we have to do to win.”

Let’s hope the this afternoon’s action is more exciting and unpredictable than the beige pre-match chat. Stay here to find out if it is and all the team news, with kick-off set for 4.30.