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The Arsenal board members \u2018concerned\u2019 about recent results under Mikel Arteta are unlikely to have had their minds put at ease by the manager\u2019s unhinged pre-Sporting press conference to mirror a touchline demeanour which is putting each and every Gunners player and stakeholder on edge as they look to get over the line this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo fear, pure fire. That\u2019s it,\u201d Arteta revealed<\/strong> as his message to players and those fans who forgot to \u201cbring your dinners\u201d for Bournemouth.<\/p>\n \u201cPure fire, that\u2019s what I want to see from the players, the people, myself. The opportunity is unbelievable. Let\u2019s confront it, let\u2019s go for it and put everything into it.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m on fire. That\u2019s it. Nothing else. I\u2019m dreaming so much. I\u2019ve done so much to be in this position, because I know how this club it was.<\/p>\n \u201cHave zero fear. Fear I had when \u2018oh, if we don\u2019t get this done, this club. I don\u2019t know what going\u2026\u2019 That was fear.<\/p>\n \u201cNow there\u2019s no fear. It\u2019s just purpose, fire, direction and conviction that we\u2019re going to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: Mikel Arteta issues 96-word Arsenal \u2018fire\u2019 demand, slowly shrinks and transforms into corn cob<\/strong><\/p>\n Issuing a call to arms to a group of players routinely sh*tting the bed in games they\u2019re terrified of losing on the back of similar battle cries is a strange decision. A man on \u201cfire\u201d is a disaster for a team needing to be ice cold in the face of adversity.<\/p>\n \u201cMikel Arteta needs to take a breath and calm things down,\u201d says former Manchester United midfielder Lee Sharpe. \u201cHe looked agitated and nervous; he was all over the place on the touchline and that doesn\u2019t settle the players on the pitch. Everyone is going to be nervous in a title run-in because of what\u2019s at stake, but the manager needs to show a calmness.<\/p>\n \u201cArteta looks very animated in every game Arsenal play, and that doesn\u2019t help the players. He will be as anxious as the rest of them, but it looked like the whole stadium was feeling it.\u201d<\/p>\n A leopard can\u2019t change its spots. Just as no one can reasonably expect Arsenal to become a free-flowing, dynamic football team in what remains of the season \u2013 and why would they when the drudgery has got them this far? \u2013 Arteta isn\u2019t about to sit calmly taking notes on the bench.<\/p>\n But where have the \u2018just another game\u2019 cliches gone? Why isn\u2019t there at least the public insistence that they\u2019re preparing for these huge clashes with the same intensity as any other?<\/p>\n We all know that\u2019s bullsh*t but Arsenal could really do with some of that soothing nonsense right now. It\u2019s like he wants them to be stressed; in that aim at least he is succeeding in spectacular fashion.<\/p>\n Our friends over at TEAMtalk<\/em> report<\/strong> that some members of the club\u2019s hierarchy are \u2018somewhat concerned\u2019 by the recent form of Arteta\u2019s side and that Arsenal will wait until the end of the season to conduct \u2018a full review\u2019 of the situation before deciding whether to offer him a new contract.<\/p>\n But what about this season? There\u2019s a long Premier League history of relegation firefighters arriving at clubs and effecting immediate change for good or bad in a bid to avoid the drop.<\/p>\n And while we\u2019re not advocating for Sean Dyche to save Arsenal\u2019s season, the most likely means of Arsenal winning the title right now may be through the appointment of a serene perennial winner to douse the \u201cfire\u201d Arteta is fanning to all corners of the club.<\/p>\n Maybe they could be some sort of interval manager, taking over to win them a title before Arteta returns at the start of next season, or even just a managerial consultant acting as a madness translator, toning down the anxiety Arteta exudes as a go-between for the players.<\/p>\n In any case, Zinedine Zidane is available<\/strong> as a tonic for the agitated Arsenal manager pushing the players and fans to the brink of a nervous breakdown.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n