arteta cedera

London - Kabar buruk mendatangi Arsenal pasca kekalahan dari Manchester City, yakni cedera Mikel Arteta yang membuat gelandang asal Spanyol itu harus absen beberapa pekan.

Arteta sendiri memang tidak bermain di laga yang berakhir dengan kekalahan 0-2 untuk timnya di Emirates Stadium, Minggu (13/1/2013) malam WIB. Posisinya di starting eleven digantikan Abou Diaby yang juga baru kembali dari cedera yang membuatnya absen tiga bulan.

Setelah pertandingan, Wenger pun mengungkapkan jika Arteta mengalami cedera betis saat melakoni latihan tim kemarin dan mengharuskannya menepi selama tiga pekan.

"Dia akan menjalani pemindaian pada hari Senin. Dia harus absen selama tiga pekan. Otot betisnya tertarik," ujar manajer Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, seperti diwartakan BBC.

"Ini adalah pukulan untuk kami karena ia bisa memberikan pengalaman, stabilitas dan kedalaman taktik di lini tengah kami. Kami akan kehilangan itu," lanjutnya.

Kehilangan Arteta tentunya merugikan Arsenal sebab ia adalah anggota skuad inti dan jadi salah satu pemain selain Steven Gerrard yang tak pernah absen di Premier League musim ini. Sejauh ini ia sudah tampil 26 kali di seluruh kompetisi dan membuat empat gol.

"Kami memang akan berbelanja, tapi tentunya sulit untuk mencari pemain sekaliber Arteta di bulan Januari," ungkap Wenger mengenai kemungkinan mencari pengganti Arteta.

"Percayalah pada saya karena kami sudah melakukan usaha semaksimal mungkin. Saya tidak ingin berbicara soal siapa yang kami incar," tutupnya.

arsenal qualify for the Champions League Is Harder Now

Mikel Arteta know if it is difficult for Arsenal to qualify for the Champions League.  Yet the Spanish midfielder will remain optimisti chances the Gunners appear in the competition next season.

Since Arsene Wenger held in 1996, Arsenal never missed performing in European club competition terelit it.  But arguably the last few seasons, Arsenal often difficult to win the ticket to get there - even in the last two seasons they have to go through the play-offs before appearing in the Group Phase -.

There Chelsea began to disrupt the hegemony of Arsenal as rivals Manchester United, Manchester City but later began to emerge.  Not only the two clubs, non-subscription clubs like Tottenham Hotspur and Everton began to stretch to get to go to the Champions League.

Arsenal are now competing not only Manchester United, Chelsea or Liverpool who had always been touted as a member of the Big Four.  So naturally, if Arteta assess their ticket to the Champions League is now more difficult than last season.

"I think the last 10 seasons is not as hard as it is to get into the top four. To date there are six or seven clubs that can go in there and it showed an increase in the quality of English football," said Arteta as reported by the team's official website.

"For me, no other league in Europe that has the same level with the top five or six teams in the UK. All difficult opponents, such as Sunderland, Stoke," he continued.

Arsenal is currently in fifth position with 44 points, four points ahead of Spurs, who finished fourth.  With 12 weeks remaining Premier League again, Arsenal is still a great opportunity to be able to shift the rival.

However, consistency of performance must be shown to the team from North London if it wanted to keep the tradition of always qualify for the Champions League.

"But to qualify for the (Champions League) had been outstanding for us. We could have been eliminated in the Champions League because it is the best competition."

"This is the month where everything can look better or worse for the end of the season. But we are currently fine and we have the players who are in top performance."

"The match against Spurs is important derby. Would be held on their home turf and it will be very decisive. But we are confident that we have the quality to be in the proper place and we will fight as much as possible to get to it (the Champions League," said Arteta