SOKRATIS PAPASTATHOPOULOS warns that suffering Arsenal are ready to explode against Manchester City on Sunday.
The Gunners’ Greek international defender is convinced his team-mates are on the brink of reversing the club’s worst slump in years.
Sokratis has warned Manchester City that Arsenal are ready to explode and play dirtyCredit: PA:Press Association
But first they need to roll up their sleeves and put in the hard yards against the team he regards as the best in the game.
“We need one good game at our home to explode and I hope that will come on Sunday against Manchester City,” Sokratis claims as he reflects on a run of 13 games without a clean sheet.
“We have the quality but that’s not what this game will be about.
“To show that quality, first of all you have to do the dirty work. We have to run altogether, fight to win the duels, be tactically organised, play at pace and try to help each other.
“Intensity is the most important thing in football. If you do the dirty work and you’re organised, you can do a lot of things.
“The manager is trying to explain what he expects from us and he has given a lot of hard work and attention to our organisation.
“The team who can best use their organisation will win on Sunday. If we all press together and work for 90 minutes, then we can find our best quality.”
We need one good game at our home to explode. If you do the dirty work and you’re organised, you can do a lot of things
Sokratis
Yet Sokratis concedes that is going to be Herculean task against City in spite of the Champions’ own recent indifferent results.
Pep Guardiola’s team have dropped 14 points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool following last Sunday’s shock home defeat in the Manchester derby.
But Sokratis insists: “Manchester City are perfect as a team. They have fantastic players and, along with Liverpool, they are the best team, not just in the Premier League but in football.
“It will be a very difficult game but we are looking forward to it.”
After just one win in their last 11 matches, Arsenal are not exactly going into Sunday’s clash on the crest of a wave.
Sokratis admits: “We’ve lost confidence because we didn’t win for a long time. That’s normal when you have young players who don’t have the experience to live through this.
“Some games this year we don’t play very good football, we don’t take our chances and then something happens and we concede a goal.
“Sometimes it looks easy when you watch football on TV, but it’s not as simple as that. All the players need to have a good day to get the right result.
“When things aren’t going well then of course you feel nervous. So at the moment we can’t look at getting into the top four. The first thing we need to do is find our confidence and our organisation.
“Then we will see where we are at the end of the season.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
