Mikel Arteta has warned his Arsenal squad that anyone who cannot handle the pressure and “noise” of a title race should “be part of a different club”, as the Premier League leaders respond to renewed questions over their mentality.
Mikel Arteta has delivered his most direct message yet to Arsenal’s dressing room, telling his players they must embrace the scrutiny that comes with a title challenge or look elsewhere.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s North London Derby, Arteta was asked about the external pressure on his squad after surrendering a 2–0 lead to draw 2–2 with bottom-placed Wolves and allowing Manchester City to close the gap at the top.
“You ask them the question: ‘Do you want to be part of the noise or not?’ If not, go and do something else,” Arteta said. “Be part of a different club or do you want to be Arsenal? Everybody has been demanding for 10 years, 15 years that we need to go back there, fighting for the title, and now we are there, and now what? You do not want noise? Noise is part of it and the bullets are part of that. We try to deal with it in the right way and achieve what we are looking for.”
The comments come at the end of a week in which Arsenal have been accused in some quarters of “bottling” another title race after winning just two of their last seven league matches. Arteta rejected that label outright, insisting it is not how he views his squad. “It is not part of my vocabulary and I do not see it like this because I do not think anybody wants to do that as an intention,” he told reporters, adding that criticism has to be accepted “on the chin” after dropping points at Molineux.
He also underlined that the situation remains in Arsenal’s hands. “We have to do what we have to do. I do not think it is going to change for anybody,” he said. “At the end you have to win the next match and if you do that you are going to be in a much stronger position. That is the only thing we can control.” With City now within striking distance and holding a game in hand, the message is that performance, not narrative, will decide whether Arsenal turn their position into a first league title since 2004.
The pressure around the Wolves result has been intense, both because of the opposition’s league position and the manner of the collapse. Bukayo Saka and Piero Hincapié put Arsenal two up before Wolves struck twice, including a stoppage-time equaliser after a defensive mix-up. Arteta admitted afterwards that his side “did not perform in the way we require to win a Premier League match” in the second half, and his language since has focused on standards rather than solely on the scoreline.
Within the squad, there has been a similar acknowledgement. Declan Rice, speaking to Sky Sports and quoted in the same Irish Examiner piece, described the draw as “sickening” and said Arsenal had stopped “doing the basics” once Wolves found a route back into the game. He also pointed to a shift in mentality since he arrived, saying that players are now more willing to challenge each other in the dressing room when levels drop.
Arteta has repeatedly described Arsenal’s league position as a “privilege” earned over seven and a half months of consistent work, a framing that sits alongside his harder edge over the last few days. The balance he is trying to strike is clear: raising demands without allowing anxiety to take hold. “The position we are in is a privilege because we have earned it and for so long,” he said earlier in the week. “We need to embrace that… when you get to the latter stages of the season you understand the importance of every win.”
From an Arsenal perspective, the public tone matters. Supporters have seen late-season wobbles before and know Manchester City’s history of finishing strongly. Hearing the manager both defend the squad against some of the more loaded language and, in the same breath, tell his players that those who cannot handle “noise and bullets” should “be part of a different club” offers a clear picture of where the bar is being set.
The next step is how the team respond. A derby away to Tottenham, followed by a demanding schedule across four competitions, will reveal whether Arteta’s warning lands as intended: not as a threat, but as a reminder that this is the exact pressure Arsenal have been trying to play for, and that the responsibility for how they handle it lies primarily with the group inside the dressing room.