London: Arsenal players ripped into each other during a fiery half-hour crisis meeting in a desperate bid to -rescue their season.
Details of the meeting emerged as Arsenal faced up to the prospect that midfielder Aaron Ramsey could miss most of the -Premier League title run-in with a thigh injury. The dressing-room summit was led by senior quartet Petr Cech, Per Mertesacker, Tomas Rosicky and Mikel Arteta, who feared Arsenal were in danger of letting their chance to finish the season with silverware slip away.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and his staff were not aware of the meeting, which allowed the players to be brutally honest with each other without the threat of being asked to calm down. Tempers and voices were frequently raised during the get-together that was arranged after the defeat to Swansea City. Players challenged each other over how much they really wanted to win the Premier League and whether or not they were showing enough desire and fight to get over the line. Despite the fact Arsenal are eight points behind leaders Leicester City, the players made a vow to give absolutely everything until it is mathematically impossible to win the title.
Goalkeeper Cech was able to relay some of his experience from winning four Premier League titles and the Champions League with Chelsea, while defender Mertesacker lifted the World Cup with Germany. The meeting appears to have had the desired effect, as Arsenal stopped their three-game losing run by drawing with 10 men against Tottenham and won their FA Cup replay at Hull City on Tuesday night.
Arsenal players last season held a far more sedate meeting which inspired a winning run and saw them lift the FA Cup for the second successive season.
Forward Theo Walcott confirmed the crisis meeting had taken place. “We are not going to lie - we know as a unit it has been tough and we all had a good chat amongst us behind closed doors, without even any of the coaches or the manager knowing about anything,” said Walcott. “I think it is important [to know] that as a team we have got it in us. We just have to produce it more often. You had a sense in the Tottenham game especially, when you go down to 10 men in a big game like that, the belief and the character was there.”
Arsenal will discover the severity of Ramsey’s thigh injury amid fears that he could miss most of the title run-in. The results of a scan are due imminently but there is concern that Ramsey’s suspected thigh tear could be a long-term injury, resulting in him missing around six weeks. He is almost certain to miss the rest of this month, including two matches for Wales, and Arsenal’s FA Cup quarter-final with Watford and Champions League tie in Barcelona.
Assessments are also ongoing for Mertesacker and fellow centre-back Gabriel after head and hamstring injuries respectively in the 4-0 win over Hull, with both players a doubt for Sunday’s Cup tie against Watford. Wenger described Mertesacker’s injury as a “little concussion” and, while that might not have been a precise medical diagnosis, the German will now have to be monitored carefully.
