Raheem Sterling has trained really well in the aftermath of his poor performance against Leicester City, according to Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta.
Even given the context that Raheem Sterling is yet to really get going for Arsenal, last Saturday’s match against Leicester City was very disappointing.
Frustrations grew as Sterling consistently failed to make the most of his chances on the ball, losing all five of his ground duels, getting caught offside twice (despite looking down the line on both occasions), and having just one blocked shot and one chance created.
It perhaps made Sterling’s performance look even worse that Nwaneri was doing so well on the other side. Nwaneri won 11 ground duels to Sterling’s zero, hitting the post and the bar and providing the assist to break the deadlock.
Yet speaking ahead of Saturday’s game against West Ham, Mikel Arteta said Sterling is just focusing on putting that game behind him, and he’s trained well over the last few days.
“It’s onto the next one, but Raheem is so experienced and like many other players that we know that what you did yesterday, whether it was really good or not, could be relevant to the next game or to the next action,” Arteta said.
“He’s fully focused, he trained really good again this week and he’s ready to go again.
“Yes (he could have a big impact against West Ham), and he needs to have it because we really need him. He’s going to be really important so we need him at his best. We only need players with that mindset; to be here and impact the team.
“He is doing everything he possibly can to make it work.”
Reports have consistently suggested that Sterling is doing all the right things behind the scenes, and it’s just a matter of translating that to the pitch.
Arsenal fans can only hope that when the floodgates open, the goals and assists start flowing.