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With Manchester City through to the next round of Champions League, all eyes are on their quest for a treble. Chasing Arsenal for the Premier League title, City are also still in the FA Cup. But ahead of a critical clash between City and Arsenal on April 26 in the league, Arsenal legend Thierry Henry believes that the title is Arsenal’s to lose, though he admits something has to change — controlling their emotions.
Still ahead of City by four points, the Gunners have also played one more game than their title-chasing rivals but winning against City could be enough to push on even after recent setbacks like their 2-2 draw against West Ham United. Missing a penalty, conceding another, and making defensive mistakes, it was a game where Arsenal’s youth showed but it’s something that they can also rebound from, which Henry notes.
“From the beginning of the season, I’ve been talking about emotions. You don’t win the title on emotions, I’m sorry,” Henry said on Paramount+ during the UEFA Champions League Post-Match Show. “You win a cup, you win Champions League, you win a World Cup maybe because it’s one game and one game and you build it with your fans but 38 games, you can’t be too emotional about it. You’ve seen recently that we’ve been too emotional about it. There is one thing with passion and emotion. You can feel the emotion coming but don’t become emotional.”
This is what has been happening especially defensively lately. When the team loses its cool, mistakes usually follow, but this is where Mikel Arteta can help the team keep their heads. Managing emotion when players want to win together but not letting it boil over is something that Arteta has done well this season, and it helps that he has also been in these situations as a player himself.
But when you’re up against Manchester City and Pep Guardiola, things hit a different level. City already dominated the first fixture between the two teams winning 3-1 and that’s something that Arteta will need to make sure isn’t looming when they meet again.
“Yes a bit, I will be honest. But you still have hope, you’re still ahead. City still has to win those games and beat us,” Henry says when asked if these past few games have damaged Arsenal mentally. “It’s still there in front of you but for me, you have to get rid of the emotional part of the game.”
Arsenal having the lead in the league is the important thing to note here. Despite how things feel, this Gunners side controls their own destiny and there’s no better time than now to march into the Ethiad and defeat City. But to do that, they’ll have to keep their composure. They’ve done it for the better part of 31 matches this season, now it’s time to finish the job during the remaining seven.
