Arsenal are on the back foot in the Premier League title race after draws with Brentford and Wolves, but Mikel Arteta’s side will next face Tottenham in a north London derby.
Arsenal scored twice in stoppage time against Wolves (Image: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
Rafael van der Vaart has compared Arsenal to a youth team, saying they can’t handle pressure and don’t have the mentality of a great team. The Gunners suffered a serious blow to their chances of winning the Premier League title after drawing with bottom-of-the-table Wolves on Wednesday night.
Mikel Arteta’s side conceded a goal in the 94th minute, resulting in a 2-2 draw, but this means Manchester City can close the gap to two points if they win their next game. Arsenal lost to a 1-1 draw at Brentford last week and have dropped points from their last two games, heading into Sunday’s north London derby with Tottenham.
Arsenal beat Sunderland 3-0 on February 7 to move nine points clear in the Premier League, but doubts are now being raised about their quality. They have not won the Premier League title for 22 years, but former Spurs midfielder Van der Vaart is not convinced they have what it takes this time around, having finished second for the third year in a row.
“For me, Arsenal have always felt like a youth team. When everything is going well it’s great, but when the pressure is too high they go crazy,” Van der Vaart told Sky Bet. “But this is the first year that they feel like they’re consistent and other teams in the league aren’t performing (which helps), so we can give them a little bit more air (at the top).”
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“Mikel Arteta is a good manager. Of course he learned from Josep Guardiola. You can see that the players respect and listen to his opinion. Arsenal are the most stable (team) right now.”
Despite dropping points in the league, Arsenal are still in contention for four trophies. While they have achieved impressive results in the Champions League and FA Cup, the Carabao Cup final against Manchester City is set to take place on March 22nd.
“I don’t think Arsenal are strong enough to compete on all fronts and challenge for a treble or quadruple,” van der Vaart added. “Of course, there is hope when you are playing every game, but it is too difficult to win them all.”
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Mikel Arteta has a lot of work to do (Image: Getty Images)
The former Dutch international believes Arsenal’s biggest problem is not the talent of their players, but the mental aspect of dealing with pressure on the front line.
“Arsenal don’t have world-class players. I agree with Wayne Rooney,” he said. “Maybe it would be better to say that Arsenal have ‘stars’ in the team. They have some really good players, but none of them are world class.
“To be a world-class footballer, you don’t just have to perform, you have to have an attitude on the pitch. If you look at this Arsenal team, they are, as they say in Dutch, ‘ideal stepsons’. They can play well, but I don’t think any player would succeed if they went to Real Madrid because the mentality is much tougher and there’s more pressure.”
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