LONDON: Arsenal forward Robin van Persie admits his team-mates need to show more steel if they are to have any chance of ending the club’s trophy drought.Arsene Wenger’s side have now gone five years without silverware after another barren campaign ended in anti-climax.
The Gunners finished third in the Premier League, were outclassed by Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals and failed to reach either of the domestic cup finals.
Arsenal’s cause wasn’t helped by injuries to captain Cesc Fabregas and several other key players, but it was their lack of toughness in crucial away games which infuriated van Persie.
After fighting back from defeats to Manchester United and Chelsea to force themselves into the title race, Wenger’s team dropped two crucial points at Birmingham and then lost three successive away games at Tottenham, Wigan and Blackburn.
Van Persie, who spent five months on the sidelines because of a knee injury, knows Arsenal can match any team in England in a passing contest, but he is less convinced about their ability to grind out results. “I just think we need to toughen up,” he said. “We need to make it clear to people: ‘if you want to play football, we can play football. If you want to play hard, we can play hard.” — AFP
“We can do that, we have it within ourselves, but we need to do it consistently because if we don’t, we lose points and give the wrong message.”
With Tottenham and Manchester City now firmly established as strong challengers to the Premier League’s established ‘big-four’, van Persie claims Wenger has to make several additions to his squad before next season.
“You can see the other teams are all improving,” he said. “We need some here and there too, we need a couple of players and we need to go ahead with that.
“You look at teams like Man City and Spurs – they are all coming up now.
“This year was an open league, but you never know what will happen next season.
“I think everyone realises that we need a bit of help in a few areas.” — AFP